Seventy years after the Special Marriage Act (SMA) came into existence, Bengaluru’s marriage officials are demanding that couples who want to marry under SMA bring their parents as witnesses. “Compulsory,” some of the officials declared, despite the fact that the law makes no such insistence. “Do your parents know?” they ask of adults, who legally have every right to make decisions about their own life without any ‘parental guidance’.

TNM found this during an investigation where we visited nine of the city’s 40 sub-registrar offices, posing as a person who wished to register an inter-faith marriage under the Act. Even across these offices, the “rules” were not consistent, and what's practiced boils down to the preferences of the sub-registrar who heads that branch.

And one of the main reasons why officials are demanding parental consent, according to a senior bureaucrat we spoke to, is the fear of having to deal with complaints under the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act — popularly known as the anti conversion law — which was brought in by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in the state in 2022. While the Congress has been in power in the state for over a year now, and the party had promised to repeal this problematic law when they came to power, the legislation still exists.

The witnesses

The tip-off for this investigation came from Rahul and Sandra (names changed) — an interfaith couple who have been together for one and a half year. Rahul is a Hindu and Sandra is a Christian, and they're ready to take the next step in their relationship — get married.

However, their parents — particularly Sandra's — are not happy with this decision. “My parents haven't accepted our relationship,” Sandra said.

In September, the couple visited the Indira Nagar sub-registrar’s office to find out what documents they require for their wedding. They'd already done their research on SMA, and knew that they needed to bring three witnesses for the registration — and that these witnesses could be anyone they knew.