Don’t need ‘sacred’ fire for marriage to be solemnised?

SIGNIFICANT RULING: BOMBAY HIGH COURT HELD THAT A COUPLE WILL BE CONSIDERED MARRIED IF THEY TAKE PHERAS AROUND ANY KIND OF FIRE

In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court held that a marriage can be considered to be solemnised even if the husband and wife do not take seven pheras ( As part of the Hindu Wedding Rituals, the bride and the groom utter seven vows of the wedding while circumambulating around the sacred fire seven times) around the sacred fire. The HC said it is okay if the couple takes the pheras around any kind of fire.

The ruling was delivered on Friday by a division bench of Justice Kamalkishor Tated and Justice BP Colabawalla while hearing a plea filed by city-based Samit Agarwal who questioned the legality of his marriage. In his plea, Agarwal labelled his marriage to Kamlesh Gupta as ‘illegal’ on the ground that they took did not take the seven pheras around a ‘sacred fire’ as envisaged in the Hindu Marriage Act. He argued that a bundle of aggarbatti (incense sticks) was burnt and he along with Kamlesh took the pheras around it. He accordingly argued that walking around burning aggarbattis would not amount to taking pheras.

Trashing his contention, the judges ruled, “We are unable to agree with this submission. What is a sacred fire has not been defined in the Hindu Marriage Act. The fact that there was a bundle of aggarbattis that was burning and Samit and Kamlesh took seven pheras around the said agarbattis is not disputed.”

“This being the case, at least to our mind, this would be enough to show that there was compliance with the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Merely because the priest has stated that he has not performed Saptapadi because he was not aware of what that is, will not carry the case of Samit any further,” the judges added.

The judges noted that as per the Hindu Marriage Act, which considers solemnisation of a marriage after performing the Saptapadi i.e. taking of seven steps by the bridegroom and the bride jointly before the sacred fire.

“Merely because they took seven pheras around the burning aggarbattis does not mean that no seven pheras were taken around the sacred fire as contemplated under the Hindu Marriage Act. The fact that seven pheras were taken around the bundle of burning aggarbattis and looking at the other evidence (such as applying sindoor and garlanding each other), we have no hesitation in holding that all the requirements of a marriage as contemplated under Hindu Marriage Act were duly complied with,” the judges ruled.

The judges accordingly upheld the judgement of the Family Court which refused to dissolve the marriage between Samit and Kamlesh on the ground that they did not take seven pheras around the sacred fire.