Misuse of interfaith special marriage notices prompts Kerala to stop publishing notices online

In view of the misuse of pictures of interfaith couples, Kerala government has decided to do away with the practice of publishing notices for marriages under the Special Marriage Act online.

The SMA stipulates that prior notice for marriages under the act should be published at the respective marriage registration offices. As part of the shift to online registration initiatives, the Kerala Registration Department started publishing such notices, which even contains pictures of couples, on the department's website since last year.

However, some couples were shocked to see their pictures being circulated on the social media with the tag 'love jihad' as either of them happened to be from the Muslim community, especially the male.

Athira Sujatha Radhakrishnan, one of the victims of such a campaign, posted her plight on the social media a few days back. She said that the right to life, privacy and freedom of matrimonial alliances were affected owing to the government's oversight. "How is the government going to protect us from the rampant misuse of such publicly available personal identifiable information?" she asked Kerala registration minister G Sudhakaran by tagging him in the post.

The minister swiftly acted and directed the state Inspector General of Registration to look into the issue. As it was found that the notices under SMA were being widely misused even with communal motives, it was decided to do away with the practice of publishing the notices on the website. But the mandatory practice of publishing the notice at the respective registration office will continue.

Thanking the minister for the swift action, Athira said that it was a landmark notice that provide a safe ecosystem for interfaith couples to live safely in the state.

Athira told DH that she was of the opinion that even the norm that prior notice for getting married under the act should be done away with.