Tehsildars to turn marriage registrars

The Delhi government is considering a proposal to increase the number of hands for registration of marriage by also giving tehsildars the power to function as marriage officers.

In addition to giving additional powers to tehsildars, the Revenue Department is also exploring the possibility of hiring retired gazetted officers for functioning as marriage officers in some of the districts where there is heavy flow of marriage registration.

“In the central district, there are about 1,000 marriages registered in a month. This is the highest among all districts. If needed, we might hire retired gazetted officers for this district,” said a senior functionary in the Divisional Commissioner’s Office.

Currently, deputy commissioners, additional district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates are conferred with powers as registrars of marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act.

If the current proposal on conferring similar powers on tehsildar goes through, the department’s pools of marriage registrars would go up by nearly three dozen.

Officials said this would help the public as it would reduce waiting time for newly wed couples to get their marriage certificates.

“The power to register marriage is ordinarily exercised by the additional district magistrates but at times when officials are pre-occupied with other work then others step into ensure that the couples do not have to wait long for their certificates,” said an official.

The conferring of marriage registration power on the 33 tehsildars is going to add to our resources for speedy disposal of marriage registration applications, he said.  

As for taking in retired gazetted officers for marriage registration, the department officials said they are weighing the pros and cons of the proposal.

“We would first want to explore the options of using our existing staff in the districts for the work,” said an official.

Under normal conditions, most districts register about 60-100 marriages in a month. “We may not need retired officials to step in these districts. However, hiring retired officials can be considered in the central district where there is excess load on the officials with nearly 30-40 marriages being registered daily,” said the official.

A normal registration of marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act requires a fee of Rs 100 and takes about two weeks. Registration of marriage under the Special Marriage Act requires a fee of Rs 150 and the process is completed within 60 days.

The department is also stepping up its efforts to check activities of touts outside the marriage registrars’ offices.

“There have been reports when touts have misled couples into opting for the costly tatkal marriage registration option which costs about Rs 10,000 in place of Rs 100,” said an official.

To generate more revenue and give newly wed couples an affordable option of getting their marriage certificate within one day, the Revenue Department is also considering to reduce by nearly half the cost of tatkal marriage certificate.