66 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(18)
18. Place and form of solemnization. —(1) The marriage may be solemnized,—
(a) at the office of the Registrar, or
(b) at such other place within reasonable distance therefrom as the parties may desire, upon such conditions and on the payment of such additional fees as may be prescribed.
(2) The marriage may be solemnized in any form:
Provided that it shall not be complete and binding on the parties unless each party says to the other in the presence of the Registrar and the three witnesses, I (A) take thee, (B), to be my lawful wife (or husband).
(3) The marriage shall be solemnized in the presence of the Registrar and the three witnesses.
(19)
19. Certificate of marriage —(1) When the marriage has been solemnized, the Registrar shall enter a certificate thereof, in the form specified in the Sixth Schedule in a book to be kept by him for that purpose and to be called the “Hindu Civil Marriage Certificate Book” and such certificate shall be signed by the parties to the marriage and the three witnesses.
(2) On a certificate being entered in the Hindu Civil Marriage Certificate Book by the Registrar, the certificate shall be deemed to be conclusive evidence of the fact that a civil marriage has been solemnized and that all formalities as respects the signatures of witnesses to the marriage have been complied with.*
(20)
20 When marriage not solemnized within three months after notice, new notice required. —Whenever a marriage is not solemnized within three calendar months after notice thereof has been given to the Registrar, as required by section 12 or where the person objecting to the intended marriage has filed a suit in a court of competent jurisdiction and the decision of such court has been given, within three calendar months of the date on which the period allowed by law for appeal from such decision expires, or if there is an appeal from such decision, within three calendar months from the date of decision of the appellate court, the notice and all other proceedings thereon shall be deemed to have lapsed and no Registrar shall allow the marriage to be solemnized until a new notice has been given in the manner prescribed in this Chapter.
*( Under this section 19 Dr. Ambedkar’s remarks in pencil in his personal copy are
as under, ‘It is not enough to say that formalities have been gone through. It carries us nowhere, conclusive evidence must be of solemnization and not of
formalities.,’—Ed.)