Arya Samaj certificate alone can’t prove marriage, says Allahabad HC

PRAYAGRAJ: Taking a serious note of frequent use of marriage certificates issued by the Arya Samaj, the Allahabad high court has said that Arya Samaj has been misusing its beliefs in organising marriages without considering the genuineness of documents.
Hearing a habeas corpus petition, the court observed that Arya Samaj societies were issuing marriage certificates without proper solemnization of marriages, and added that marriage could not be proved only on the basis of this certificate.
Making the observation, justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery said, “The court is flooded with marriage certificates issued by different Arya Samaj Societies which have been seriously questioned during different proceedings of this court as well as by other high courts. The institution has misused its beliefs in organizing marriages without even considering the genuineness of documents.”
The habeas corpus petition was filed by one Bhola Singh who had produced a certificate issued by Arya Samaj Mandir, Ghaziabad, to claim that he was legally married to “petitioner number 2”.
“Since the marriage has not been registered, it cannot be deemed only on the basis of the said certificate that the two parties have married,” the court observed in its decision dated August 31.
“In the present case, the corpus is a major and an FIR has been lodged against the petitioner number 1 (husband) by the father of petitioner number 2 (wife), and investigation is undergoing. Therefore, there is no case of illegal detention,” the court said.