Moral, Social and Legal Context

Marriage is a personal choice. How can an institution like AryaSamaj2.0 ‘Evaluate’ or give ‘Consent’ to solemnizing a marriage. This is against the fundamental right of Indian Citizens.

We have absolutely no right to invade someone’s privacy or have our value judgement on personal choices made by people. Yet, we are essentially community based spiritual institution and we have our own set of ethics and value system to govern our actions and choices. We do decide to conduct marriages as per the following three criteria.

1. Moral :

This is somewhat subjective criterion but the lines are drawn by us. In most cases, we would say no if the age difference between bride and groom is exceeding 10-15 years ( like groom at 40 and bride at 20 ) or there is too much difference between educational profile or family income ( like a doctor marrying a primary pass partner ). We have experienced that mostly these marriages have ulterior motives.

2. Social :

We, at AryaSamaj2.0 , are for creating harmony in our society and not to divide it. In social arena, most problem cases appear when parents and family members of bride / groom ( or both ) are not in favor of proposed alliance. In such cases, we must be satisfied that parents are not kept in dark and the enough efforts have been done by bride and groom to explain their position to parents. Consent of parents is not essential but prior knowledge to them is a must.

3. Legal :

Since AryaSamaj2.0 issues is legal marriage Certificate that is valid as per Indian law, we are absolutely inflexible about legality and credentials of bride and groom for marriage. Various self attested documents like PAN, Aadhar Cards, Address proof and legal affidavits are required before a marriage certificate is issued.

However, above restrictions apply only when a ‘Certificate’ is required from Arya Samaj. For conducting regular marriage Sanskars alone, we don not require any affidavits except identity proofs.