A couple, who had not registered their marriage officially as it was not mandatory when they got married, have now got it officially registered 53 years after their wedding, and years after their passing away, thanks to a request to the Local Self Government department from their mentally challenged son.
C. Bhaskaran Nair and T. Kamalam, natives of Sekharipuram in Palakkad, had got married at the Subramaniam Swamy temple at Kodumb on June 4, 1969. However, they had not registered their marriage as it was not mandatory then. Kamalam passed away in 1998 and Bhaskaran Nair in 2015, after which the family pension for ex-service persons ceased being credited to their only son T. Gopakumar.
On son’s request
The pension was held up citing that Bhaskaran Nair’s family details were not available in the military records. Following this, Mr. Gopakumar submitted a request to the government for registration of his parents’ marriage. As per the Kerala Registration of Marriages (Common) Rules of 2008, marriage can be registered, if either the husband or the wife has passed away. However, it does not specify the rules in cases where both the husband and wife are dead.
Minister for Local Self-Government Institutions M.V. Govindan, in a press release, said that he intervened in the issue after consulting the Law department. It was decided to allow the registration of marriage in this case as registration was not mandatory when their marriage happened and also because the 2008 rules do not specify the steps to be followed in cases where both the husband and wife are not alive.
Family pension
Mr. Govindan said that the government decided to take a humanitarian stand in the case as the family pension was necessary for their only son to survive.
The department had also changed rules of marriage registration after the COVID-19 outbreak, allowing couples who had got married during the period and are staying abroad to get it registered through videoconferencing, without appearing in person. The Minister said that steps were being taken to amend rules to make this a permanent facility. The updating of marriage registry in case of divorces was also being considered, he said.
