Special Marriage Act, 1872

This Act creates a civil, non-religious form of marriage in Pakistan for people who do not wish to marry under their own religion's personal law. It originally covered people professing none of the major religions listed in Section 2, and a 1923 amendment extended it to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains who choose to marry under it instead of their own personal law.

Section 2 sets the conditions for a marriage under the Act: neither party can already be married, the man must be at least eighteen and the woman at least fourteen years old, parental or guardian consent is required if either party has not turned twenty-one, and the parties must not be within degrees of relationship prohibited by the law each is subject to. Sections 3 to 13 lay out the registration procedure: a Marriage Registrar is appointed for each district (Section 3); one of the parties must give the Registrar written notice at least fourteen days before the intended marriage (Section 4), which is publicly recorded in a Marriage Notice Book (Section 5). Anyone may object to the marriage on the grounds listed in Section 2 (Section 6); an objector can then bring a suit in civil court, and if the court finds the objection was not reasonable and made in good faith, it may fine the objector up to one thousand rupees (Section 10). The marriage is solemnized before the Registrar and three witnesses using a simple prescribed form of words (Section 12), and the Registrar records a certificate in a Marriage Certificate Book (Section 13).

Section 15 treats it as an offence under the Pakistan Penal Code (Sections 494 or 495) for an already-married person to marry again under this Act, and voids that second marriage; Section 16 similarly punishes bigamy committed by someone who was married under this Act. Section 17 applies the Divorce Act, 1869, to marriages solemnized under this Act. Sections 22 to 26, added in 1923, address the specific family-law consequences for Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain parties who marry under the Act, including effects on joint-family status, inheritance rights, and loss of the right of adoption.

This is a very old law (1872), already partly amended and repealed in places (Section 20 and the Fourth Schedule are repealed) - readers should be aware its provisions have been modified over time and check the current text for anything beyond the general marriage procedure described here.