BADRUDIN ABDULLA HIRJI Vs. REGISTRAR OF MARRIAGES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition filed by the petitioner Badrudin Abdulla Hirji against the respondent the Registrar of Marriages, Bombay, under Section 43 of the Indian Christian Marriage Act (XV of 1872) for an order that the respondent be directed to issue a certificate forthwith before the expiration of fourteen days required by Section 41 of the Act and that the respondent be ordered and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for the solemnisation of the intended marriage between the petitioner and one Miss Nancy Adala Ferguson. Miss Ferguson is a minor within the meaning of the Act, not having completed her age of twenty-one.

(2.) It appears that on March 20, 1945, Miss Ferguson gave notice of the intended -marriage to the Marriage Registrar at Bangalore. The petitioner had also given a notice of marriage to the respondent, he being a resident of Bombay. The Marriage Registrar at Bangalore did issue in accordance with the provisions of Section 41 of the Act a certificate which is called a Certificate of Receipt of Notice of Marriage on April 5, 1945, with reference to the notice of marriage given to him by Miss Ferguson. The respondent, however, took up the attitude that he would not issue any certificate with reference to the notice of marriage given by the petitioner to him on February 16, 1945, because Miss Ferguson was a minor, that her father and mother were dead, that there was no person resident in India authorised to give such consent to her marriage, and that therefore unless a guardian was appointed of Miss Ferguson for the express purpose of giving consent to such marriage, he would not issue a certificate. A communication to this effect made by the respondent was received by the petitioner on or about April 14, 1945, and the two months period prescribed under Section 52 of the Act expired before the petitioner could take any further steps under Section 46 of the Act. In the result the petitioner gave a fresh notice of marriage to the respondent on April 16, 1945. He also filed the present petition before me under Section 43 of the Act for the necessary directions to be given to the Marriage Registrar at Bombay as I have already stated above.

(3.) It appears that Miss Ferguson was serving as a Sergeant in W.A.C.(I) Platoon No. 2 at Bangalore and was given leave of absence from Bangalore up to April 28, 1945, for the express purpose of the solemnisation of her marriage with the petitioner in Bombay. It also appears from the petition that after such leave was granted to her, she was transferred from Bangalore to Bombay where she is expected to join after the expiration of the leave on April 28, 1945. The parties are, however, desirous of solemnising their marriage within the period of fourteen days after the entry of the notice of marriage by the petitioner on April 16, 1945, and have therefore approached me by this petition under Section 43 of the Act.