The Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR) will hold a conference in mid November to settle differences regarding the draft of Hindu Marriage Bill and draw a frame work involving all the stakeholders to give it a final shape for legislation.
Official sources told APP here on Monday that due to lack of proper documentation/certification of Hindu marriages, Hindu women were suffering for the last 66 years and were kept deprived of their matrimonial rights. The sources said that there were no family laws for Hindus, adding that the women could not claim their right in the inheritance of their husbands as they could not produce any evidence of their marriage in the courts.
It has been a year since the draft of Hindu Marriage Act 2011 was shared by the federal ministry with different stakeholders but due to certain differences among the Hindu community, the draft was never finalized and the community still awaited the legislation so that their marriages could be recognized and registered.
For the purpose of facilitating the proof of marriage, the government could make rules providing that the parties to any such marriage may have the particulars relating to their marriage entered in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed in the marriage register.
The marriage register would be open for inspection and would also be admissible as evidence of the statement. Both the parties should be 18 years old and the marriages would be solemnized in accordance with the customary rites and ceremonies of either party.
The bill would deal in detail with the separation, nullity and divorce of Hindu marriages.