558 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
marriage between sapindas is perfectly valid if it happens to be a civil marriage under clause 10. This is the difference or gap between the validity of the sacramental marriage and the validity of the civil marriage. What does clause 21 lay down ? It says that it is open to the parties who have entered into a sacramental marriage of the type envisaged in clause 7 later on go to the Registrar and ask him to register it as a civil marriage and the poor Registrar will have no option. What is the legal effect of these three provisions read together ? Whatever sanctity is attached to the sacramental marriage is eliminated. Mind you, one of the requisite conditions of a valid sacramental marriage is that there should be no marriage between sapindas. This condition does not exist in section 10 and the poor Registrar, inspite of the fact that the sacramental marriage was an invalid marriage because of this, has to register it as a civil marriage. Therefore, the camouflage, the curtain of a sacramental marriage is lifted here and the effect of invalidity, because it was a marriage between sapindas is circumvented by this device. I ask, is it in accordance with Hindu ideals of marriage ? Will not all persons be inclined, wherever they choose, to celebrate a marriage between sapindas ? They can do it as a sacramental marriage and subsequently go and cure the invalidity by undergoing civil marriage.
We come then to provisions of Section 9. It has been stated that even the sacramental marriage must be entered into a marriage certificate register and that if it is not so entered the defaulter may be punished under the law. As regards its validity, it is very doubtful whether it will be valid or not. Of course, the Rau Bill did not go so far. The Rau Bill left it at the option of the parties to either get an entry made in the register or not. The only object with which such a provision was incorporated in the Rau Bill was to facilitate the proof of marriage. But that object has been told good-bye in the present Bill. What is stated here is that it will be open to any Provincial Government to make the registration of sacramental marriages compulsory. The provision of section 6 says that a marriage in order to be valid, must be in accordance with the provisions of the Bill. If not, then it is not a valid marriage. Therefore, the conclusion is irresistible from the reading of Sections 6,7,10 and 21 that any marriage which has not been registered by the married couple in the certificate register will be invalid. I respectfully submit, what are the legal consequences flowing from this sort of a provision ? Are they not repulsive to the very ideal of Hindu society, to the very injunctions