Hindu Marriage Disabilities Removal Act, 1946

The Hindu Marriage Disabilities Removal Act, 1946 (Act XXVIII of 1946) removes certain traditional restrictions on marriage between Hindus. Section 1 extends the Act to the whole of Pakistan, per a 1960 amendment noted in the extract; the Act itself was originally extended to various regions (Balochistan, Gwadur, and former princely states) through separate notifications listed in the footnotes.

Section 2 is the operative rule: notwithstanding any text, rule, or interpretation of Hindu law, or any custom or usage, a marriage between Hindus that is otherwise valid is not invalidated merely because the parties belong to the same gotra or pravara (traditional clan/lineage groupings), or because they belong to different sub-divisions of the same caste.

In effect, this is a narrow validating law removing specific traditional-law obstacles (same-gotra and cross-sub-caste) to an otherwise valid Hindu marriage, similar in spirit to the Arya Marriage Validation Act, 1937.

Given its age (1946) and the layered extension/amendment history shown in the footnotes, current applicability to specific regions or cases should be checked against the official text.