THE PARSEE MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE ACT 1865. ACT No. XV. of 1865. The following Act of the Governor General of India in Council received the assent of His Excellency the Governor General on the 7th April 1865, and is hereby promulgated for general information : An Act to define and amend the law relating to Marriage and Divorce among the Parsees. Preamble. Whereas the Parsee Community has represented the necessity of defining and amending the law relating to Marriage and Divorce among Parsees; And whereas it is expedient that such law should be made conformable to the customs of the said community; It is enacted as follows: - Short title. Interpretation clause. Number. "Priest." I.—Preliminary. I. This Act may be cited as "The Parsee Marriage and Divorce Act 1865." II. In this Act, unless there be something repugnant in the subject or context-Words in the singular number include the plural, and words in the plural number include the singular. "Priest" means a Parsee Priest and includes Dastúr and Mobed. "Marriage" means a marriage between Parsees whether contracted before or after the commencement of this Act; and "Husband" and "Wife" "Marriage." “Husband" and "Wife" respectively mean a Parsee Husband and a Parsee wife. "Section." "Chief Justice." "Court." "Section" means a Section of this Act. "Chief Justice" includes Senior Judge. "Court" means a court constituted under this Act. "British India" means the Territories which are or shall be vested in Her Majesty or her successors by the Statute 21 and 22 vic., cap. 106, enti "British India." tled "An Act for the better Government of India." "Local Government." And, in any part of British India in which this Act operates, "Local Government" means the person authorized to administer Executive Government in such part of India, or the Chief Executive Officer of such part when it is under the immediate administration of the Governor General of India in Council, and when such Officer shall be authorized to exercise the powers vested by this Act "High Court." in a Local Government; and "High Court" means the highest Civil Court of appeal in such part. Parsee marriages. II.-Of Marriages between Parsees. III. No marriage contracted after the commencement of this Requisites to validity of Act shall be valid, if the contracting parties are related to each other in any of the degrees of consanguinity or affinity prohibited among Parsees and set forth in a Table which the Governor General of India in Council shall, after due inquiry, publish in the Gazette of India,* and unless such marriage shall be solemnized according to the Parsee form or ceremony called "Asírvád" by a Parsee Priest in the presence of two Parsee witnesses independently of such officiating Priest; and unless, in the case of any Parsee who shall not have completed the age of twenty-one years, the consent of his or her father or guardian shall have been previously given to such marriage. IV. No Parsee shall, after the commencement of this Act, *Memo. by the Secretary to the Parsee Law Association.-The Table of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity within which Marriage is prohibited among the Parsees is published in the Gazette of India of 9th September 1865, and is reprinted in this book at the end of this Act. Re-marriage save after time of first wife or husband. contract any marriage in the life-time of divorce unlawful during life his or her wife or husband, except after his or her lawful divorce from such wife or husband, by sentence of a Court as hereinafter provided; and every marriage contracted contrary to the provisions of this Section shall be void. Punishment of bigamy. V. Every Parsee who shall, after the commencement of this Act and during the life-time of his or her wife or husband, contract any marriage without having been lawfully divorced from such wife or husband, shall be subject to the penalties provided in Sections four hundred and ninety-four and four hundred and ninety-five of the Indian Penal Code for the offence of marrying again during the life-time of a husband or wife.* VI. Every marriage contracted after the commencement of Certificate and registry of this Act shall, immediately on the solemmarriages. nization thereof, be certified by the officiating Priest in the form contained in the Schedule to this Act. The certificate shall be signed by the said Priest, the contracting parties, or their fathers or guardians when they shall not have completed the age of twenty-one years, and two witnesses present at the marriage; and the said Priest shall thereupon send such certificate together with a fee of two Rupees to be paid by the husband to the Registrar of the place at which such marriage *The following are the Sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal code herein referred to:-494. Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. Marrying again during the life time of husband or wife. Exception.-The Section does not extend to any person, whose marriage with such husband or wife has been declared void by a Court of competent jurisdiction, nor to any person who contracts a marriage during the life of a former husband or wife, if such husband or wife, at the time of the subsequent marriage shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years, and shall not have been heard of by such person as being alive within that time, provided the person contracting such subsequent marriage shall, before such marriage takes place, inform the person with whom such marriage is contracted, of the real state of facts so far as the same are within his or her knowledge. 495. Whoever commits the offence defined in the last preceeding Section, having concealed from the person with whom the subsequent marriage is contracted the fact of the former marriage, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. Same offence with concealment of the former marriage from the person with whom subsequent marriage is contracted. is solemnized. The Registrar on receipt of the certificate and fee shall enter the certificate in a register to be kept by him for that purpose, and shall be entitled to retain the fee. VII. For the Appointment of Regis trar. may purposes of this Act a Registrar shall be appointed, who be the Registrar appointed, under Act XVI. of 1864 (to provide for the Registration of Assurances). Within the local limits of the ordinary original Civil jurisdiction of a High Court, the Registrar shall be appointed by the Chief Justice of such Court, and, without such limits, by the local Government. Every Registrar so appointed may be removed by the Chief Justice or Local Government appointing him. VIII. The Register of Marriages mentioned in the sixth Section shall, at all reasonable times, be open for public inspection. open for inspection; and certified extracts therefrom shall, on application, be given by the Registrar on payment to him by the applicant of two Rupees for each such extract. Every such register shall be evidence of the truth of the statements therein contained. IX. Any Priest knowingly and wilfully solemnizing any Penalty for solemnizing marriage contrary to and in violation of marriage contrary to Sec- the fourth Section shall, on conviction thereof, be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two hundred Rupees, or with both. Marriage register to be tion 4. Penalty for Priest's negleet of requirements of Section 6. X. Any Priest neglecting to comply with any of the requisitions affecting him contained in the sixth Section shall, on conviction thereof, be punished for every such offence with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to one hundred Rupees, or with both. XI. Every other person required by the sixth Section to subscribe or attest the said certificate who subscribe and attest the shall wilfully omit or neglect so to do, shall, on conviction thereof, be punished for every such offence with a fine not exceeding one hundred Rupees. Penalty for omitting to certificate. Penalty for making, &c., false certificate XII. Every person making, or signing, or attesting any such certificate containing a statement which is false, and which he either knows or believes to be false, or does not know to be true, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence of forgery as defined in the Indian Penal Code, and shall be liable, on conviction thereof, to the penalties provided in Section four hundred and sixty-six of the said Code.* register certificate. XIII. Any Registrar failing to enter the said certificate purPenalty for failing to suant to the sixth Section shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand Rupees, or with both. register. XIV. Any person secreting, destroying, or dishonestly or Penalty for secreting, des- fraudulently altering the said register in troying, or altering the any part thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description as defined in the Indian Penal Code for a term which may extend to two years, or, if he be a Registrar, for a term which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to five hundred Rupees. III.-Of Parsee Matrimonial Courts. XV. For the purposes of hearing suits under this Act, a Constitution of special special Court shall be constituted in each Courts under this Act. of the Presidency Towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, and in such other places in the Territories of the several local Governments as such Governments respectively shall think fit. XVI. The Court so constituted in each of the Presidency Parsee Chief Matrimonial Towns shall be entitled the Parsee Chief Matrimonial Court of Calcutta, Madras or Courts Forgery of a record of a Court of Justice, or of a public Register *The Section 466 of the Penal Code is as under :466. Whoever forges a document, purporting to be a record or proceeding of or in a Court of Justice, or a Register of Birth, Baptism, Marriage, or Burial, or a Register kept by a public servant as such, or a certificate or document purporting to be made by a public servant in his official capacity, or an authority to institute or defend a suit, or to take any proceedings therein, or to confess judgment, or a power of atorney, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. of Births, &c. |