ELIGIBILITY OF COURT MARRIAGE

The definition of marriage is different according to the place, religion, tradition ethical beliefs,
and cultural practice. However, in general, a marriage is the union of the two people legally and
socially bound by the governing laws of the nations and the religious practice of the people
involved. Marriage makes the husband and wife share their every life moment and makes the
bonding in every situation in life to proceed to their common goal, share their happiness and
sorrows. Marriage establishes the rights and obligations between the spouses for the rest of their
life. Different types of marriage are being followed by different communities and different
people by their interests. The commonly practiced method of marrying is the court marriage that
involves the legal certification of the marriage between husband and wife permitted by the
government law and accepted by the witnesses. Court marriage is being practiced in developed
nations vary widely and other developing countries are also following this method because of the
several advantages.

The very first step of the court marriage is the fulfillment of the criteria for the marriage. To be
eligible for court marriage, both the candidates should fulfill certain criteria set by the
government laws. The eligibility criteria for the court marriage are specified by the respective
government and the candidates should follow all the requirements to get married. Both a man
and woman accepting each other as a husband and wife should fulfill other criteria such as the
religious belief of respective religion, fulfilling appropriate age of the marriage, and not getting
married previously. The cultural aspect of the nation governs this law as in some religions, the
people related by blood can’t get married but, in some religions, it is common to have a conjugal
relationship between two relatives also. The key factor for the court marriage is that the
candidates should be ready for the wedding by their own choice and they should possess all the
requirements set by the government authority for the marriage including religious and cultural
beliefs. After fulfilling all the requirements, the legal procedure of the marriage registration
begins that may differ from nation according to their rule. In the case of Nepal, the registration of
the marriage can be conducted by different methods. For a court marriage, the registration is
done in a court at the time of the marriage. Other marriages should also be registered afterward
completing the social and religious processes. For the registration of the court marriage, certain
documents are required for the verification of the personal identity of the man and woman and a
specified application form should be filled out by the candidates to request for the registration.
Along with the application form, the citizenship certificate should be provided in both original
and notarized form. The original and notarized copy of the citizenship certificate of the witness is
also required for the official purpose. The man and woman should provide the recommendation
letter of the local government agency to prove the single status of both applicants. The
recommendation letter of the temporary residence should also be provided which is issued from
the local administration for both the applicants. In the case of foreign citizens residing in Nepal,
extra documents of a no objection letter from the respective embassy and the marriage laws of
the respective country should be provided in both original and notarized forms to validate the
marriage. The recent photographs and the application fees should be paid along with the all
required documents for the registration of the court marriage. After the verification of the
provided documents by the court authority, makes the appointment date along with registration
of the application form provided by the applicants. After the fulfillment of the application
requirement, document verification, and the fulfillment of all the conditions, the court officially
registers the marriage and provides the certification.

The court marriage is being popular and extensively preferred by the new generation because of
its many positive aspects in comparison to the other traditional marriage procedures. Many steps
of marriage may take a long time to complete the marriage process in different traditional
marriage systems. But, in court marriage, the process is very fast and requires the least time
among all the marriage types and the marriage process is quick and easy. The official marriage
registration is performed in the court itself, so the cost of the marriage is very low, which is
another big advantage of the court marriage. The huge amount of money that is required for the
traditional marriage process can be saved by conducting court marriage and the saved money can
be invested in some productive sector instead of investing in a non-productive way. The other
advantage of this type of marriage is that it supports the people who are planning to have inter-
caste marriage against social beliefs. In some countries like Nepal, inter-caste marriage is
permitted and promoted by the government laws and regulations but it is restricted by social
beliefs at the same time. though some people are avoiding such superstition, in many localities,
people still believe in such old traditional beliefs about inter-caste marriage. Hence, the court
marriage is the best option to conduct an inter-caste marriage since no one objects to marrying
the person you want. If the requirements set by the court administrator for the marriage process
are fulfilled, then the marriage process becomes easy and no extra processes are required. that
couples who are having family issues to marry socially can take benefit by conducting court
marriage in the presence of their witness. The marriage certificate is provided by the court itself,
so there is no requirement for the extra certificate to prove the marriage officially. That makes
the certification process easier and quicker. Those people who don’t like to invite people and
waste their money on the gathering parties can take the advantage of the court marriage by
saving their money and time as well as avoiding unnecessary gatherings and parties. Moreover,
there are many merits of the court marriage as it is the official, easy, cheap, and quick marriage
and many people can conduct this type of marriage according to their favorite time with their
favorite person.
Along with the advantages, there are also some limitations of court marriage. though the
limitations are less, they can play a significant role in some cases. The marriage process in the
court may get longer due to the unavailability of the required condition or lack of the proper
documentation. Also, it requires many documents and this may take more time to prepare and
manage all the documents required for the marriage process. The scarcity of a single document
can disturb the whole marriage process and the person can get into serious trouble, so managing
all the officially verified documents can be a lengthy and tedious process in a court marriage
registration process. Furthermore, there is the compulsion of the witnesses in the marriage and
the official document issued by the government of the witnesses is also required in the marriage
registration process. Sometimes, it can be a difficult situation to manage the government identity
document of witnesses. But, in comparison to advantages, there are only a few disadvantages of
court marriage.
The procedure by which two people make their relationship public, official, and permanent is
known as marriage. It is the forming of a bond between two people that is supposed to continue
till both of them are satisfied with their relationship. In the world, everyone marries excluding
some exceptions. the process of marriage differs from the country, religion, social beliefs, ethnic
groups, cultural norms and regulations, and many more factors. Thus, the process, method, and
tradition of marriage differ by the above-mentioned factors and people are continuing this for
ages. Among them, court marriage is the common practice of marriage that is widely used in
western culture and rapidly growing in eastern society also. This is preferred by the young
generation because of its many advantages in comparison to the traditional marriage rituals and
saves time, money, and effort. The eligibility criteria for the court marriage are also very clear
and any candidates willing to have marriage can apply for it with the proper documents and
witnesses. This marriage system is accepted worldwide and is also less complicated, so the
system of this marriage is being developed worldwide exponentially over other traditional
marriage rituals.

REFERENCES
https://english.onlinekhabar.com/court-marriage-procedure-in-nepal-everything-you-should-
know-about.html#:~:text=Requirements%20for%20a%20marriage&text=Both%20man%20and
%20woman%20accept,above%2020%20years%20of%20age.