Coming soon in India a campaign for separate law for the registration of Sikh marriages

Times of India

No need of Sikh Marriage Act: Tulsi
9 Dec 2007, 0248 hrs IST,Yudhvir Rana,TNN

ATTARI: The man who dared to challenge Gujarat chief minister Narinder Modi's Sohrabuddin Sheikh remark, KTS Tulsi has now raised the hackles of the Sikh clergy by raising objections over a separate Act for registration of Sikh marriages in India.

"We follow all Hindu traditions," the Gujarat government's special counsel in Supreme Court, KTS Tulsi, told TOI here on Saturday. Tulsi was part of the delegation of senior Sikh advocates and intellectuals that left for Pakistan along with a draft proposal of Sikh Marriage Act. The delegation, led by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), returned on Saturday.

Hindus and Sikhs share the same basic values and the conditions for a valid marriage, grounds for judicial separation and procedure for divorce by mutual consent, among others, are included in the Hindu Marriage Act, he said. "There's not much need for a Sikh Marriage Act in India," he added.

However, he clarified, there was an urgent need for such a legislation outside India. In other countries, he claimed, Sikhs don't have any personal law and their issues get intermingled with the laws of societies they live in, he said. "It (Sikh Marriage Act) would prove to be a boon for girls who are married abroad and are subjected to torture or are abandoned by their husbands. There is a likelihood of other countries adopting Sikh Marriage Act," he added.

Angry at the statement, Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Avtar Singh Makkar reacted by saying: "Who is Tulsi to dictate to us?" There are more than two crore Sikhs in India who want a separate law for the registration of marriages in the community, he said. Condemning Tulsi's take on the Act, DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna too was quick to clarify: "I differ with Tulsi. We have a separate religion and registering our marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act is like living under oppression. It hurts when we are referred to as a part of Hindu society."

Though he reiterated the need the Act in India, he was unable to explain his failure to take the initiative (of getting a separate Sikh Marriage Act implemented) here. "It was Pakistan that had first started Punjabi radio programme. We thought that after the (Sikh Marriage) Act is implemented in Pakistan, India would follow suite."