The question of the legality of religious-only marriages has once again been thrust into the limelight in the wake of the revelation by former consort of President Bharrat Jagdeo, Varshnie Singh, that their “marriage” was never registered.

A few years ago there were concerns about the prevalence of such marriages between underage partners and between underage girls and older men. The age of consent has since been raised to 16 and there have been changes in the Marriage Act. However, such unions still take place.

Although Jagdeo and Singh were married according to Hindu rites in 1998, Singh recently told reporters that the marriage was never registered. Singh’s admission has raised the issue of the legality of her union with the President since according to the of laws of Guyana, once a marriage is not registered with the General Registrar’s Office, it cannot be considered to be a legal marriage.

On a wider scale, this disclosure raises questions about the legality of religious unions locally and about whose responsibility it is to ensure that the parties involved in religious unions have their marriages registered.

In Guyana, religious wedding ceremonies are still the norm, as opposed to civil unions, a fact that religious leaders Pastor Elsworth Williams, Chairman of the Guyana Evangelical Fellowship; Imam Joseph Mohamed who is attached to the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG) and Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud, the President of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha have confirmed.

Christian weddings

According to Pastor Williams, Christian wedding ceremonies remain very popular. He said that based on his experience there has been an increase recently in the number of couples choosing a traditional Christian wedding. According to Williams, God sees marriage as a “covenant” and consequently it is a very important commitment between a man and a woman. He opined that more couples may be realizing this and that is why they are choosing to get married. He added that some of these couples may be learning from the experiences of their fore parents who may have chosen not to get married and suffered hardships as a result.

Many Christian marriages are proceeded with after banns are published, which are required to be announced for three consecutive weeks at least three months prior to the solemnization of the marriage.

However, some couples choose to get married by licence, which Williams opined was safer especially if they intend to migrate later on as a couple. The converse is also true, since some individuals choose not to get married since it may hamper their migration plans.

A licence is obtained by filing a petition which has to be signed by both parties and which would have among other details the full names of the couple, details about their profession, the place where the marriage will be solemnized and the marriage officer who will be solemnizing the union. After the petition is approved by the General Registrar’s Office, the licence is given. Stabroek News was informed that this process can be completed in a matter of days.

The actual wedding ceremony is conducted by a pastor or priest who is a marriage officer. And Williams said this official has both a spiritual and legal responsibility to the couple.  He said that the minister should advise them about marriage and make sure there are really ready emotionally for such a commitment.

Williams emphasized that for the Christian marriage ceremony both the vows and the legal signing of the documents are important.

As for the legal responsibility, Williams stated that the officiating minister should ensure that the marriage is done within the confines of the law, which would include ensuring that the parties are of age to get married and have completed the necessary steps in keeping with the law. This includes the signing of the marriage register by the couple, the witnesses and the marriage officer. In addition to the original document, two duplicates are produced.

After the ceremony, when the contracting parties, witnesses and marriage officer have all signed, the original with the stamp must be submitted to the Office of the General Registrar Office.  The first copy should be given to the contracting parties and the second copy kept by the marriage officer as an additional record to the register.

Williams said that after the papers are signed, the marriage officer has a role to play in ensuring that the marriage is registered with the General Registrar’s Office, since he has to submit the original document. Williams explained that once that is done the registration of the marriage can be done within a matter of days.  He said that the officer was legally required to submit the original copy of the signed marriage register within two weeks of the wedding ceremony.

Islamic weddings

An Islamic wedding is known as Nikha and for Muslims this is a “legal” marriage in the sight of Allah. According to Imam Mohamed, it is against the laws of Islam for a Muslim male and female to live together or to have sexual relations without Nikha first being done.  He explained that Islamic weddings are family affairs, where the parents of the respective persons approach the Moulana, Sheikh or Imam about their children getting married.

Mohamed explained that historically Nikha could have been performed between teenagers below the age of 18, but says that this is now discouraged since the laws of Guyana forbid it. He said that while some marriages between underage parties are still conducted, those religious leaders who officiate at these ceremonies take a big risk since they can be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, Mohamed said that it is not strange for many Muslims to choose not to legalize their marriage. From experience, he said some couples choose not to engage in legal

marriages since it would impede in their migration process. “A girl may have relatives outside, who may be sending for her, and being legally married will affect this.”  However, Mohammed explained that since he is a marriage officer he can only conduct Nikha for a couple who wishes to get legally married.

He stated that most legal Muslim marriages are conducted by licence. After the Nikha is performed the signing of the documents is done. After this the documents are handed over to the couple who then go and register the marriage. According to Mohamed there was a time when the officiating marriage officer would have had to play in ensuring that the marriage was registered but he stated that now once the two people have all the documents they can ensure that this process is completed.

Hindu weddings

Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud has been a marriage officer for over 40 years. He said that for Hindus, marriage is a sacred occurrence and that the typical Hindu wedding ceremony reflects this.  However, he pointed out that these unions need to be legalized and that is why the majority of Hindu marriages are done via licence. Persaud opined that all Hindu marriages should be conducted by a pandit who is a marriage officer. He explained that having a ceremony conducted by such a person is safer, since this officer is compelled to ensure that the union is done legally.

Persaud explained that prior to the relatively recent changes to the law in relation to such unions, Hindus and Muslims were able to get married under the Indian Labour Act. Persaud explained that the couple would apply to the Indian Immigration, who would issue a Non-Impediment Certificate, which the couple would sign to legalize the marriage. He said that this was done without any cost attached. However, Persaud told Stabroek News that he was one of the chief advocates for a general law to be instituted, which would be inclusive of persons of all religious persuasions. Consequently, he was pleased when various amendments were made.

Persaud admitted that some pandits who are not marriage officers conduct Hindu religious weddings. When asked about the legally of this practice, Persaud said that this may not be illegal since this may be interfering with the individual’s right to practice freedom of religion. He said that once the priest was not blatantly doing something wrong like marrying underage persons it was unlikely that he would be prosecuted.

One pandit, who is not a marriage officer, told this newspaper that he has “married” Hindus in traditional wedding ceremonies but added that the couple would usually have the marriage legalized afterwards.

However, according to Section 67 of the Marriage Act, Chapter 45:01 any person who solemnizes a marriage without “due publication of banns or notice of marriage, or license of marriage from the minister, or certificate from a superintendent registrar, first had and obtained” is guilty of an offence.

Persaud opined that recently the frequency of unregistered unions has reduced because the marriage officers are very responsible in delivering their duties.

He said that this may be partly because these officials know that if there is any indiscretion they can suffer penalties.

When asked what the responsibilities of these marriage officers were, Persaud said that they had to make sure that the marriages were conducted legally. He said that this included ensuring that the union was legally registered at the General Registrar’s Office. He added that while the couple had a responsibility to ensure that the union was registered, the marriage officer had a role to play in ensuring that this process was completed. If the officer does not do this, Persaud said, that official could be penalized, even having his/her licence suspended.

Section 67 of the Marriage Act, Chapter 45:01 which deals with offences does not clearly identify the failure of the marriage officer to produce the original marriage register to the General Registrar’s Office as a criminal offence. According to this section of the law, a marriage officer commits an offence when he deliberately does the following: (1) solemnizes marriage at any other time than between the hours of six in the morning and nine in the evening (2) solemnizes marriage without due publication of banns or notice of marriage, or licence of marriage from the minister, or certificate from a superintendent registrar, (3) falsely pretends to be a marriage officer or superintendent registrar, and therefore solemnizes marriage, or (4) solemnizes any marriage more than three months after the last publication of banns or notice of marriage, or the issue of a licence by the minister, or the entry of a notice of the marriage by a superintendent registrar.

This section of the law states that if a person does this he shall be found guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to imprisonment for two years, provided that all prosecutions are commenced within three years after the offence was committed.

However, the very fact that the role of the marriage officer is to ensure that the union is done legally would indicate that whoever is the officiating minister at a religious wedding is responsible for ensuring that the marriage is registered. The couple, however, cannot be said to be without fault for not registering the union.