Lucknow, Aug 5 The Allahabad High Court has restrained an Arya Samaj temple here from solemnising marriages or issuing marriage certificates until further orders after taking a serious view of alleged failure of the temple to verify the legal age of couples.
A Lucknow bench of Justices Rajnish Kumar and Babita Rani passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by Neha and Anand Kumar seeking protection from alleged police harassment.
The court observed that if marriages of persons below the legally prescribed age are solemnised, all those involved in the process would be liable under the law.
It also remarked that while the principles of Arya Samaj are founded on truth and social welfare, some institutions were not adhering to those basic values.
During the hearing, the state counsel submitted that petitioner Anand Kumar was around 19 years old according to his Aadhaar card, whereas the minimum legal age for marriage for a man is 21 years.
On the court's direction, the secretary of the Arya Samaj temple, Sankalp Mishra, appeared before the bench and produced the marriage register and related records.
The bench questioned how Anand Kumar's age was recorded as 22 years in the marriage certificate when his Aadhaar card showed his date of birth as January 1, 2007, and no other documentary proof of age was available.
The temple secretary told the court that the age had been recorded on the basis of an affidavit submitted by the boy's mother. However, he could not explain under which legal provision an affidavit alone could be accepted as proof of age in the absence of supporting documents.
Observing that the records prima facie indicated that proper verification of the parties' age was not being carried out before solemnising marriages, the court directed the temple to file an affidavit undertaking that all legal requirements, including proper age verification, would be followed before conducting any marriage in future.
The bench also impleaded the temple as a party to the proceedings and directed it to file its response.
The court further ordered that the marriage register and affidavits produced by the temple be kept in sealed custody with the senior registrar of the high court.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 31.
