According to Dr Vageshwari Deswalan academician, author, feminist and activist working as a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

Marriage was originally viewed as a social institution to prevent men from engaging in unrestricted polygamy and to establish paternity for their offspring. The state has established rules to control every element of human life throughout the years, and marriage is no exception. Marriages in India are governed by the personal laws of the religion practised by the parties to the marriage. The Special Marriage Act of 1954 and the Foreign Marriage Act of 1969, respectively, govern inter-religious and inter-national weddings. As a result, we have laws that govern the necessary elements for lawful marriage, reasons for divorce, spouse and child support, adoption, guardianship, inheritance, succession, and so on. In addition, we have some secular laws dealing with marriage matters, such as Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Sections 498A of the Indian Penal Code, the Family Courts Act of 1984, and the Domestic Violence Act of 2005. For Hindus and Christians, marriage is a sacrament, and the parties involved place a high value on following conventional customs, rites, and ceremonies, such as the saptpadi, saatpheras, garlands exchange, and vows. These rituals are required for a legally binding marriage. Hindu weddings are thought to have taken on a commercial aspect once permission became a legal condition for marriage.

The argument is debunked, as Hindu marriages are only voidable, not void-ab-initio like contracts, due to a lack of consent. Marriages in Islam are contractual, with a focus on the offer and acceptance of the marriage in the presence of competent witnesses. The wife is referred to in the Hindu texts as Ardhangini, which means “other half,” signifying that a man is completed until he marries. In addition, the woman has been referred to as the Graha Lakshmi, Dharam Patni, and Sahadharmini, as an essential partner in her husband’s religious and spiritual commitments. Widow remarriages were forbidden in Hindu culture, whereas Sati Pratha was encouraged. Such regressive practises were mostly abolished thanks to the efforts of social reformers. Marriage is seen as an eternal bond among Hindus for many lives to come. As a result, before the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, the notion of divorce was not recognised. Sage Vashistha, Parasara, and Kautilya explain some instances in which a woman may quit her husband and remarry in ancient Hindu writings. This was allowed in circumstances where the spouse lacked character, was impotent or had become a hermit. In a patriarchal culture, however, these scriptures were seldom highlighted, and women were driven to stay with polygamous spouses since men could often take more than one wife with impunity. Prior to 1955, Hindu marriages were monogamous for the lady only.

With the exception of Islam (which allows a man to have up to four legally married wives at any given time), all spouses now have the freedom to be monogamous. With the repeal of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, adultery is no longer a criminal offence, but rather a reason for divorce for both the husband and the wife. Bigamy is a basis for criminal prosecution of the errant spouse under Section 494 of the IPC, in addition to being a ground for divorce. Marriage grants the right to a conjugal connection and denying it is cruel, particularly when the parties are young and healthy. Restitution of Conjugal Rights is a marital remedy provided under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 22 of the Special Marriage Act of 1954 for those forsaken by their spouse. However, this ostensibly gender-neutral rule is presently under court scrutiny for infringing on human privacy, dignity, and autonomy. Women have a legal right to dwell in the married home with their husbands. She also has a legal right to be supported by her husband’s earnings. The court may deny her support from her husband’s income if the woman is earning similarly well or is well qualified to earn. Courts use the ‘able-bodied person’ test to establish whether or not a man requesting maintenance from his wife is capable of earning a living.

Marriage allows the couples to purchase property in their combined names, open joint bank accounts and lockers, and identify each other as a nominee in insurance, pension, and gratuity forms. In the event that one of the spouses dies or becomes disabled, the other spouse is legally entitled to a pension. Marriage, on the other hand, does not provide the spouses a portion of each other’s self-acquired assets. Except in Goa, the notion of marital property is not recognised in India, therefore couples who divorce have no claim to the other’s property, whether by inheritance or otherwise. According to intestate succession regulations, following a husband’s death, the wife and her children obtain an equal portion of all of her husband’s property, while the husband can only acquire a share of his wife’s own property after her death, not her ancestral property. Married couples can adopt, according to the Central Adoption Resource Authority’s standards, but both spouses must agree to the adoption. Furthermore, no child shall be placed for adoption with a couple until they have been married for at least two years. Although some faiths believe the husband to be the natural protector of his underage bride, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, is a secular law in India that prohibits child weddings.

If an adult male above the age of 18 enters into child marriage, he will be sentenced to two years in prison or a fine of up to one lakh rupees, or both. In addition, marriage consummation with a minor bride is no longer protected under the IPC, and it has been labelled as marital rape by the Supreme Court in a 2017 judgement. During the course of a marriage, communications between spouses are protected from disclosure. Because it is vital to maintain absolute secrecy between a husband and a wife who share the most personal connection, spousal privilege is protected by section 122 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. This covers all communications made during the marriage’s life, and the privilege remains even after the marriage’s dissolution, but only for communications made during the marriage’s existence. We are ignoring our responsibilities as a result of the overabundance of rights rhetoric in today’s legal realm.

In certain locations, the special law for women has helped to ameliorate their hardships, but we must caution against excesses. Financially independent and self-assured women pose a visible danger to male supremacy, which refuses to recognise women as equals, causing marital strife. Women are becoming more aware of their legal rights, and they do not believe that they are the weaker sex. In the course of my profession, I’ve come across situations when the parties should genuinely move on. It is preferable for them to let go rather than being caught in a situation where neither of them is happy and both are sad. The grief impacts others around them, with children being the most impacted. Everyone is entitled to happiness. When love fades from a marriage, the law steps in. In the form of divorce, the law gives a way out of a broken partnership. Happiness may be found the second or third time around. The hopeless optimist in me wants to think that there are no evil people, only bad situations and that everything changes with time.