Bill sent to standing committee

NEWDELHI: The bill, which makes it mandatory for Non-resident Indian men to register their marriage within 30 days of getting married, has been referred to Parliament’s standing committee on external affairs.

The ‘Registration of Marriage of Non-resident Indian Bill, 2019’ empowers passport authoriti e s t o i mpound or revoke passport or travel documents of NRIS who fail to register their marriage within 30 days after getting married.

“Members are informed that the Speaker, Lok Sabha, in consultation with the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, has referred the Registration of Marriage of Non-resident Indian Bill, 2019, as i ntroduced i n t he Rajya Sabha, to the Standing Committ ee on External Affairs f or examination and report within two months,” the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a bulletin.

Against t he backdrop of cases of Indian women being trapped in fraudulent marriages with non-resident Indians, a bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in February this year to make it compulsory to register such marriages within 30 days.

If an NRI man fails to register his marriage within the stipulated time, his passport can be impounded or revoked.

Also, i t al l ows c ourts t o attach properties, movable and immovable, of “proclaimed offenders” or people who fail to appear before courts despite warrants being issued against them.

The proposed law will be applicable to NRIS marrying Indian women within or even outside India, according to the bill.

Besides, two others bills -- the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill and the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill -- have been referred to Parliament’s standing committee on information technology and the panel on agriculture respectively, to report within two months.