Role of religious rituals and practices in molding the rules regulating to marital relations

A baraat arrives with drums, a pandit lights the fire, the couple walk around it, and two hours later everyone agrees they are married. Another couple sign papers before an officer on a weekday morning and are just as married. Between these two scenes lies a question the courts have had to answer many times: which parts of a ceremony are law, which are tradition, and what happens to the marriage if a part is missed?

In two minutes

In Indian family law, ritual is not decoration: depending on the community and the Act, a rite can be a condition of validity, a matter of custom to be proved, or a form the parties may choose for themselves.

The rest of this chapter

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