The Protections Afforded by the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2016

Finally the Hindu Marriage Bill takes the shape of Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016 in Pakistan. The law of course aims to protect Hindu marriages, families, women, and their children by safeguarding their legitimate rights in Pakistan.

It is a consolidated law for the solemnization of Hindu families residing in Pakistan. Hindu citizens of Pakistan who mostly reside in the Province of Sindh deserved a law that could protect their rights and recognize their marriages by registration- which now a possibility under this Bill. It should be kept in mind that marriage taken place before this Bill would be considered valid and petitions under this law shall be presented before the Family courts.

It is the first law of its kind which would be applicable to whole of Pakistan except the Province of Sindh which has its own law as Sindh Marriage Act, which regulates marriages of Hindu residents of Sindh. Predating this Law there had been Hindu Marriage Act of 2014 which could not amalgamate all requirements and measures for Hindu marriages. This new Bill of 2016 provides all those requirements and measures which are available in the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 of India.

It was not untill 2014 that the first legislation regulating Hindu Marriages in Pakistan (Hindu Marriage Act 2014) was engendered. The legal lacuna created many problems especially for Hindu women who had to prove their relationship to officials and in particular to widows, where they could not evidence their marriage to the deceased. This allowed for those women to struggle for the rudiments of life. They couldn’t go for bank statements or apply for a passport or a visa.

The birth of this act was delayed many times despite the fact that Supreme Court of Pakistan had directed the State to legislate on this matter. Two provinces KPK and Baluchistan had passed the resolution as per Article 144 of the Constitution but Punjab and Sindh had not. It was then in 2014 when a bill was jointly presented in Parliament by Ramesh Lal of opposition Pakistan People’s Party and Darshan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. A separate but similar bill was tabled in Parliament by Law Minister Pervaiz Rashid in March 2015. Although, both the bills were differently introduced by two different parties, the bills established rules and regulations for the registration of Hindu marriages and the procedure for their divorce.

Province of Sindh was the first in passing a law for Hindu marriages although, the law was passed in haste and could not safeguard Hindus from problems like the annulment of marriage by conversion of either spouse to any other religion and forced conversion of Hindus to any other religion. In addition to this the law still had not figured out a way for Hindus to evidence their marriages. Today the final form of this law in Sindh stands by the name of the Hindu Marriage Registration Bill of 2016.

The law passed in 2014 was plagued with other concerns as well. The Hindu Marriage Act of 2014 provided a punishment of one hundred thousand rupees if in any person went against section 7(2) of the Bill (omission of the registrar in the registration of the marriage) depending upon the severity while in Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016 the punishment has been removed. Section 7(2) of the Act of 2014 describes that ‘if it is of the opinion that it is necessary to do so that the entering of the particulars in sub section 1 of the same section shall be compulsory whether in all cases or in such cases as may be specified and if any direction has been issued’, any person going against it would be fined which may extend to one hundred thousand rupees. In Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016 section 7(4) of the 2014 Act has been removed which says that the validity of any marriage shall in no way be affected by the omission of registrar.

There is no restitution of Conjugal rights in Hindu Marriage Act of 2014 while in Act of 2016 there is an addition section dealing with Restitution of Conjugal Rights, where either husband or wife has withdrawn from the society of the other, the aggrieved party may file a petition for the conjugal rights.

In the 2014 Act while defining grounds for judicial separation there is no such ground where a wife can file petition for judicial separation while this right has been granted in Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016. Hindu women did not have any access to this right on grounds of cruelty, misbehaving, not providing maintenance e.t.c.. Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016 provides this exclusive right to Hindu women allowing them to file a petition for judicial separation.

The word divorce has been mentioned in the Act of 2014 while in the Bill of 2016 the word termination of marriage has been mentioned instead. This is a huge step in the way of Hindu marriages as many women struggle to legally ascertain their standing when seeking a divorce.

Hindu Marriage Act of 2014 does not talk about the financial security of wife and children while this safeguard has been provided in the Bill of 2016. The wife may oppose the petition for termination of marriage on the ground of financial security of herself and her child born in result of the marriage. This privilege is even granted in Muslim Personal Law Ordinance to Muslim woman and now the same privilege has been extended to Hindu women under the Hindu Marriage Bill of 2016.

There are no rights for widow Hindu citizens of Pakistan. To counter this menace there is an addition of section 17 in the Marriage Bill of 2016 where a Hindu widow is allowed to marry again. Till 2014 a Hindu widow could not remarry just because she did not have the right to do so. Because of this many young Hindu Married women had to live rather restricting lives.

Bigamy is considered to be a real menace in Hindu religion as a Hindu married woman or man cannot remarry if the former spouse is alive at the time second marriage. The Act of 2014 does not provide any punishment for bigamy. The Bill of 2016 provides that punishment bringing the law in conformity with the Hindu religion’s beliefs in this regard.

The new Act has provided not one but many protections the most important of which is awarding Hindus the ability to evidence their marriage legally through the Shadi Parat which is the Hindu marriage equivalent of the Muslim marriage Nikah Nama. For this a new registrar has been appointed. The legislature has safeguarded the right of women by allowing them to file a petition for judicial separation. At the same time law has guaranteed the maintenance of wife and children under this law. Also it allows Hindu widows more options as far as their life choices are concerned as they can now choose to remarry, an option they were not legally privy to previously. The Act shows Pakistan to be announcing its guarantee for the rights of Hindus to be parallel with those accorded to the Muslims of Pakistan. This is likely to turn a new positive chapter in the lives and rights of Hindus, especially Hindu women.