Online marriages solemnised on the internet can be registered under Indian law. A double bench of Kerala High Court September 6 has ruled that online marriages can be registered under Special Marriage Act.
The court has also said that online marriages can be registered without insisting on physical presence of the couple by the empowered marriage officer.
On the question of challenges in identification of the couple, the court has said that technologies like facial recognition or bio-metrics records can be used for registration of online marriages.
With the trend of online marriages increasing in the recent times given geographical distances and covid-19 restriction, the ruling of Kerala High Court on online marriages is going to help many couples waiting for registration of their online marriages under Indian law.
A bench of Kerala High Court consisting of Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Kauser Edappagath impleaded department of information technology and union ministry of external affairs as respondents in the matter as court observed that it does not have expertise to work on the modalities for the use of technology for registration of online marriages.
A single judge bench of Kerala High Court had referred the plea on online marriage registration to the double bench. Justice P B Suresh Kumar of the single judge bench was of view that parties who are intending for marriage can solemnize it online via video conferencing. Justice Kumar referred the matter to a larger bench on the question whether online marriages can be registered without insisting on the physical presence of the couple after online marriage.
The double bench of Kerala High Court ruled that online marriages can be registered under the Special Marriage Act without insisting on the physical presence of the couple given that the marriage officer must be in position to identify the parties in online marriages.
