How can an amendment to the Special Marriage Act (SMA) help couple defy excommunication?
It can ensure that the couple can get married quickly, instead of having to wait for a month as per the present requirement under the Act. Marriages outside the SMA should get registered immediately. A state mechanism should be set up where the couple can inform and seek protection. Even under police protection, some of these honour killings have taken place. Some sanctions against the families of these couples have been enforced effectively under police protection. It is important for the police and the state to think of an effective mechanism to provide protection to these couples. In particular, no case of kidnapping should be registered against the boy in case the boy and the girl have crossed a certain age. What is the purpose of insisting on a one-month waiting period for registering a marriage under the SMA? Ours is a deeply intolerant society and the kind of disrespect we have for young people’s wishes is obvious. Therefore, the SMA’s stipulation of a one-month waiting period d
