Re: Hindu Marriages Act and cousins marrying each other
Posted By MVN Krishna (motukuri@students.uiuc.edu)
Tue, 22 Jul 1997 11:37:20 -0500
On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Illi Billi wrote:
>
> Is there any bar on marrying cousins according to the Hindu Marriages
> Act in India? More accurately, a friend of mine and his cousin want to
> marry: she is his mother's brother's daughter and they are both in love,
> and apparently very deeply so. There is some dispute here: while some of
> his friends believe that since they are both Hindu [Bengali Brahmins, if
> needed for clarification], it is not legally possible, as per the Hindu
> Marriage Act, there are some who wonder whether this is true: their
> argument runs that India is after all a free country and Hinduism is
> viewed as a liberal philosophy. (It is true that there are some bars on
> same-"gotra" marriages, but here the "gotra" is different, also, and it
> is not clear that that bar is legal.)
Well I don't think there is any such legal hindrance in marrying cousins
in Hindus because it is a common pracrice among the South Indian Hindus.
I personally know many people who have married their cousins with their
parents' consent.
But I am no legal expert and am not aware of any particular law that bans
marriages among cousins because none of those I know (who married their
cousins) didn't take any permission from any court.
regards,
krishna
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
