A TALE OF TWO LAWS: SPECIAL MARRIAGE ACT AND ANTI CONVERSION LAW IN INDIA

This paper is exploratory in nature and utilizes qualitative methods to understand the implications of two laws. The Special Marriage Act (SMA) of 1954 allows for inter-religious marriage and is heralded as a ‘liberal law’ which does not identify people based on parochial identity but sees them as ‘individuals’. However, the administrative workings of SMA suggest otherwise: giving a month’s notice, and calling for three witnesses, makes it a nightmare for those navigating it in the context of inter-religious marriages in India. Combined with anti-conversion laws, which by now twelve states of India have already passed, the moral vigilantism by right-wingers in case of such marriages and over-enthusiastic marriage officers who go beyond the law to question and act on objections, make SMA unattractive. In the background of the queer marriage hearing ongoing in the Supreme Court, which is calling for the amendment of the SMA to allow same-sex marriages, begs the question, can two calls for changes-one progressive and the other regressive be accommodated by the Indian state?