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| May 22, 2000 | ||
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| CHRISTIAN
MARRIAGE BILL On the Rocks Certain provisions of the legislation have angered the community and set its leaders on a collision course with the Government By Lakshmi Iyer
The clergy, the laity and even women activists of the community have vehemently opposed certain provisions in the bill to replace the antiquated Indian Christian Marriage Act of 1872. For example, if a priest refuses to solemnise a marriage without a valid reason, he could be fined Rs 500 or even jailed for a year. The penalty clause has caused considerable consternation among Christians, who constitute about 3 per cent of the population. They are angry because there is no punitive clause against priests in, say, the Hindu Marriage Act 1955. The community leaders now insist that the bill should not be tabled till the amendments suggested by them are included. This precondition is unacceptable to Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani who has held two rounds of meetings with the leaders of the community. He is committed to introducing the bill in the current session of Parliament which ends on May 17. "Let the bill be introduced first, amendments can be moved later," he says. However, the community leaders are not confident that their changes will be incorporated in Parliament because there are only 25 Christian MPs. "Amendments can be passed only if the Government is willing to back them," points out Kerala Congress (M) MP P.C. Thomas. The law minister is willing to consider all the "minor" amendments but won't budge on the definition of a Christian marriage. The bill describes a Christian marriage as one solemnised between persons "both of whom are Christians". The community, however, wants to retain the existing definition: a marriage of persons "one or both of whom" are Christians, thus recognising the union of a Christian with a non-Christian as a Christian marriage. Jethmalani finds the old definition unacceptable. "It is not a law for mixed marriages," he says. "All the same, I will raise the issue in the Cabinet. But to move the Cabinet, I need to first introduce the bill." Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) lawyer Jos Chiramel considers Jethmalani's unwillingness to make the changes in the bill before its introduction as a political decision. He says the divorce provisions in the new bill are similar to the Special Marriage Act. "It is close to a uniform civil code. They (the BJP) are in a hurry. We've no choice but to oppose the bill." The definition of a Christian marriage has been so central to the objection of the community that its response to this issue has been almost ecumenical. The CBCI, National Council of Churches of India representing the non-Catholics, All-India Catholic Union representing the laity and even the Joint Women's Programme (JWP) that took the initiative in updating Christian law, have all objected to the new definition of a Christian marriage. "It (marrying non-Christians in the church) is a privilege that should not be taken away," says Archbishop of Delhi and CBCI President Alan de Lastic. "To withdraw a privilege is to restrict one's freedom." Women's rights activist Jyotsna Chatterjee of the JWP, who has campaigned for a decade to provide equitable laws for Christian women, agrees. "This is the first government that has responded to the draft Christian Marriage Bill that I proposed in 1994," says Chatterjee, a Protestant. "I am happy that the new bill is gender-just but it has taken away all the powers of the Church." She dreads the prospect of the bill meeting the fate of the Christian Marriage and Matrimonial Causes Bill, 1962 -- introduced in the Lok Sabha, referred to a joint select committee and then abandoned with the dissolution of the House. The community's insistence on the old definition of Christian marriage is inextricably linked to the eagerness of the Church to retain its numbers. The Catholic Church, for example, solemnises mixed marriages in return for an undertaking from the non-Catholic that the children would be raised as Catholics. The new bill would negate this by putting the Christian marrying outside the religion under the purview of secular laws. |
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In
parts, the draft Christian Marriage Bill 2000 is a legislation Indian
Christians have been waiting for the past 38 years. Its provision on
divorce -- to replace the archaic Indian Divorce Act 1869 -- is free from
gender bias, exactly as desired by women and as decreed by various courts.
Yet the bill -- the first attempt to codify civil laws of a minority
community since 1947 -- has raised the hackles of the Christian community.
They view it as the NDA Government's bid to impose a uniform civil code
surreptitiously.