New Delhi: At least 15 couples in and around Kolkata who got married during the Covid lockdown will have to “get married again” because their marriage registration certificates have errors that cannot be rectified. The errors are so bad that the couples could face legal problems if they don’t get their marriages annulled and remarried. So, they’ll have to go through the whole rigmarole of getting married all over again.
The Bengal marriage registrar’s office has found discrepancies in more than 8,000 wedding certificates issued during the pandemic. Of these, at least 15 cannot be rectified. These 15 couples have been asked to get fresh marriage certificates. Twelve of the couples are Hindu and had married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. They received their certificates after the 30-day window, which is the deadline for issuing certificates under the act.
The registrar’s office has said that the errors in the certificates could have serious legal implications for the couples. For example, if a couple were to divorce, the certificate could be challenged in court. The couples who have been affected by the errors have expressed their frustration. They say that they are being made to suffer for the mistakes of the registrar’s office.
“These 15 marriage certificates are legally questionable. For example, in some, names of witnesses are mentioned as ‘ABC’ In others, addresses of the witnesses are missing or the telephone numbers provided are non-existent. Prima facie, it appears that the marriage registrars who uploaded these personal data had erred, ” an official was quoted as saying by Economic Times.
He further added that since these errors cannot be rectified. The couples have been advised to annul their marriages in a district court and remarry to get fresh certificates issued.
During the lockdown, some marriage registrars in Kolkata misled couples by assuring them that they would take care of the legal formalities without physical verification. However, a marriage registrar has to physically verify the details of couples and witnesses. In these cases, the registrars failed to carry out physical verification and fed erroneous data. This has affected at least 15 city couples, and one registrar has even been censured for this. The registrar’s office is taking steps to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
“Taking advantage of the Covid lockdown, this registrar assured the couples he would take care of the legal formalities without physical verifications. A marriage registrar has to physically verify details of couples and witnesses, but in these cases the registrar failed to carry out physical verification and fed erroneous data,” an official was quoted as saying.
He added that when these 8,000-odd couples were informed about errors, they approached the registrar’s office for help.
“We can rectify some errors like spellings and dates based on documentary evidence. An edit option in the online portal is accessible to marriage registrars. But in these 15 cases, we cannot cite new witnesses or their addresses or add phone numbers. This is illegal. Hence the only option for them is to remarry or get appropriate direction from the court,” he was quoted as saying. The official further claimed that since June 1, 2019, marriage records in Bengal are being digitised and manual registration has been done away with. When the migration was taking place, the state was also training the registrars on the use of the online portal. But the pandemic disrupted the process and this could have led to some registrars making errors.
