Institution of marriage vis a vis matrimonial relief a critical study with special reference to Hindu Marriage Act 1955

Abstract

Marriage is the very foundation of civil society. Traditionally, marriage is considered as a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. Invariably, all the religions especially Hindus regard their marriage not merely a sacrosanct, inviolable union and an eternal union- a union which subsists not merely during this life but all lives to come. Nevertheless, the concept of marriage has undergone a sea change. Nowadays, it is not necessary that marriage is a union between a man and a woman but two persons of homogeneous sex can also perform marriage. Gay (union between two men) and Lesbian (union between two women) marriages have been started to be recognised by various societies/countries. Moreover, of late, marriage is not considered as an eternal union. With the liberalisation of divorce, marriage has acquired the status more of a contract than sacrament. Mere temperaments and incompatibility of spouses are becoming grounds of divorce. Moreover, various alternate relationships viz. Live-in relationship, prostitution and same-sex marriage are making inroads into the institution of marriage and affecting its basic structure. Nonetheless, all these alternate relationships are not accepted by many societies, albeit its existence and thus, in the absence of non-recognistion or non-regulation of these relationships, a void has been created between moral and legal recognistion of such relationships. In this backdrop, the researcher has tried her level best to study the institution of marriage especially as it exists under Hindu Law from the point of moral as well as legal perspective in the present society. newline