Moved by the plight of a son in availing family pension benefit, Kerala has granted nod to authorities to register the marriage of his deceased parents, 53 years after the couple tied the knot. It could be the first instance of marriage registration of a deceased couple in the country.
Existing norms permit registration of marriage when only one of the spouses is alive. There is, however, no provision for registering marriage of a deceased couple.
Palakkad native and a defence personnel C Bhaskaran Nair and Kamalam got married at a temple on June 4, 1969. Kamalam died in 1998 and Nair in 2015. Their son Gopakumar, who's battling mental health conditions, couldn't avail family pension benefit as the authorities insisted on marriage certificate. Authorities told Gopakumar that details of Nair's family were not available in his service records.
Gopakumar took up the case with Kerala registration minister M V Govindan who issued a special order after consulting with the state's law authorities. Govindan issued the order humanitarian ground as Gopakumar was depending on relatives for survival. Barring the marriage certificate, documents ascertaining Nair's marriage like an entry in temple register were available.
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