Sikh influencer couple re-registers marriage under Anand Mar­riage Act

By Asia Samachar | India |

A me­dia-savvy travel in­flu­encer Sikh cou­ple has decided to do it again – their marriage. This time, Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja and Harki­rat Kaur Kukreja held an event to register their mar­riage un­der the Anand Mar­riage Act.

With three beau­ti­ful school-go­ing kids in tow, the recent move was to affirm his faith in Sikhi.

“I feel lib­er­ated. Ini­tially, as hav­ing my wed­ding reg­is­tered un­der the Hindu Mar­riage Act left me feel­ing un­set­tled. I found my­self won­der­ing how my mar­riage could be aligned with a law that did­n’t re­flect my re­li­gious be­liefs. The wait has been worth it. I feel that though it has come far too late in the day for the Sikhs, this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is an en­dorse­ment and asser­tion of Sikh iden­tity,” Har­jin­der Singh told The World Sikh News (WSN). Read the full story here.

“My de­ci­sion to tran­si­tion from the Hindu Mar­riage Act to the Anand Mar­riage Act is a pro­found af­fir­ma­tion of my faith. How could I turn my back to the glo­ri­ous Sikh mar­riage tra­di­tion of the Fourth Sov­er­eign -Guru Amar­dass Ji?”

He added: “The saga of the Anand Mar­riage Ac­t’s en­act­ment and im­ple­men­ta­tion has been a check­ered one. The Anand Mar­riage Act was passed in 1909. It was amended, af­ter more than a cen­tury in 2012, and only in 2016 were rules framed for reg­is­tra­tion un­der the amended law. My cer­tifi­cate un­der the Anand Mar­riage Act sym­bol­izes a hard-won vic­tory—a nar­ra­tive of re­silience and iden­tity re­ten­tion within the Sikh com­mu­nity.”

“This is­n’t just about us; it’s about set­ting a prece­dent. If our ac­tions can in­spire other Sikh cou­ples to em­brace their le­gal rights un­der the Anand Mar­riage Act, we con­sider it a vic­tory for our com­mu­nity,” Harkirat told WSN.

The the Anand Marriage Act dates was introduced in India in 1909 by the British Imperial Legislative Council. In 2012, the Indian Parliament had passed the Anand Marriage (Amendment) Bill, but left it to left to individual States and Union territories to frame respective rules for the registration of Anand Marriages.

So, this meant most Sikh marriages were registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

So far only 22-two states, in­clud­ing Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Ker­ala, Ra­jasthan, and Delhi, have im­ple­mented the Act, but it has not been in right earnest de­spite the no­ti­fi­ca­tion is­sued eight years ago, WSN reported.

Across the border in Pakistan, Punjab is set to become the first province to implement the Punjab Anand Karaj Bill 2017, which was first moved by Ramesh Singh Arora, the first and only Sikh lawmaker in the Pakistan Punjab state assembly. It was passed by the assembly in March 2018 but its implementation got halted.

Now, Ramesh, a Provincial Minister for Minorities and also the president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (PSGPC), said that the Act would have to be implemented after approval by the provincial cabinet.

RELATED STORY:

Anand Karaj: A marriage ceremony with a difference (Asia Samachar, 17 June 2023)

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