Anand Marriage Act: Here is the Supreme Court order directing all States and UTs to abide by it
Babushahi Bureau
New Delhi, September 18, 2025:
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all States and Union Territories to frame and notify rules within four months for registering Sikh marriages solemnised by Anand Karaj under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 (as amended in 2012), issuing time‑bound compliance steps to end uneven access to certification across the country.
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that Section 6 of the Act imposes a statutory duty on governments to create a workable registration mechanism and that decades of partial implementation had produced unequal treatment for Sikh couples depending on where they lived.
Until state‑specific rules are notified, the court ordered authorities to continue registering Anand Karaj marriages under existing marriage‑registration frameworks, with an option for couples to have the rite explicitly recorded on the certificate upon request.
The court clarified that once a marriage is registered under the Anand Marriage Act framework, no authority may insist on duplicate registration under another law, reinforcing the principle that administrative gaps cannot burden citizens with redundant procedures.
Emphasising that marriage validity does not depend on registration, the bench underscored that certification is vital to secure rights linked to inheritance, succession, maintenance, insurance and spousal benefits, particularly safeguarding women and children.
Key compliance directions
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States and UTs that have not yet framed rules must notify them within four months and publish them in their official gazettes.
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Jurisdictions with existing rules must, within three months, issue a clarificatory circular detailing procedures, forms, fees, documents and timelines, and ensure prompt availability of certified extracts.
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Each State and UT must designate a Secretary‑level nodal officer within two months to oversee implementation and address grievances.
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The Union government will circulate model rules within two months and file a consolidated compliance status within six months.
The order came on a petition highlighting the hardship caused by patchy implementation of the 2012 amendment, which inserted Section 6 to provide for registration of Sikh marriages, maintenance of a marriage register and issuance of certified extracts.
Framing the constitutional backdrop, the bench observed that in a secular republic the state must not turn a citizen’s faith into either a privilege or a handicap, and that when the law recognises Anand Karaj marriages but leaves no machinery to register them, “the promise is only half kept.”