Foreign Marriage Act, 1969
No: 33 Dated: Aug, 31 1969
THE FOREIGN MARRIAGE ACT, 1969
ACT NO. 33 OF 1969
An Act to make provision relating to marriages of citizens of India outside India.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Twentieth Year of the Republic of India as follows :—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title.—This Act may be called the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “degrees of prohibited relationship” shall have the same meaning as in the Special Marriage Act, 1954 (43 of 1954);
(b) “district”, in relation to a Marriage Officer, means the area within which the duties of his office are to be discharged;
(c) “foreign country” means a country or place outside India, and includes a ship which is for the time being in the territorial waters of such a country or place;
(d) “Marriage Officer” means a person appointed under section 3 to be a Marriage Officer;
(e) “official house”, in relation to a Marriage Officer, means—
(i) the official house of residence of the officer;
(ii) the office in which the business of the officer is transacted;
(iii) a prescribed place; and
(f) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act
3. Marriage Officers.—For the purposes of this Act, the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint such of its diplomatic or consular officers as it may think fit to be Marriage Officers for any foreign country.
Explanation.—In this section, “diplomatic officer” means an ambassador, envoy, minister, high commissioner, commissioner, charge d’ affairs or other diplomatic representative or a counsellor or secretary of an embassy, legation or high commission.
CHAPER II
SOLEMNIZATION OF FOREIGN MARRIAGES
4. Conditions relating to solemnization of foreign marriages.—A marriage between parties one of whom at least is a citizen of India may be solemnized under this Act by or before a Marriage Officer in a foreign country, if, at the time of the marriage, the following conditions are fulfilled, namely:—
(a) neither party has a spouse living,
(b) neither party is an idiot or a lunatic,
(c) the bridegroom has completed the age of twenty-one years and the bride the age of eighteen years at the time of the marriage, and
(d) the parties are not within the degrees of prohibited relationship:
Provided that where the personal law or a custom governing at least one of the parties permits of a marriage between them, such marriage may be solemnized, notwithstanding that they are within the degrees of prohibited relationship.
5. Notice of intended marriage.—When a marriage is intended to be solemnized under this Act, the parties to the marriage shall give notice thereof in writing in the form specified in the First Schedule to the Marriage Officer of the district in which at least one of the parties to the marriage has resided for a period of not less than thirty days immediately preceding the date on which such notice is given, and the notice shall state that the party has so resided.
6. Marriage Notice Book.—The Marriage Officer shall keep all notices given under section 5 with the records of his office and shall also forthwith enter a true copy of every such notice in a book prescribed for that purpose, to be called the “Marriage Notice Book”, and such book shall be open, for inspection at all reasonable times, without fee, by any person desirous of inspecting the same.