Marriage In A Registrar's Office

Parties who have obtained a registrar's certificate or a special licence may, as an alternative, contract a marriage before a marriage registrar in his office and in the presence of the two witnesses. The celebration of the marriage must take place with open doors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

After the registrar has received the certificate or licence from the parties, he addresses the parties either directly or through interpreters in the following terms: Do I understand that you, A.B, and you,C,D, come here for the purpose of becoming man and wife? If the parties, answer in the affirmative, he is required to make certain explanations of the character of the proposed marriage to them. The explanations contain the following salient points. First, such marriage, if celebrated in a registrar's office, is valid without the need for any other civil or religious rites. Second, the marriage cannot be dissolved during the lifetime of the parties except by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. Third, it is an offence — bigamy — for a party to the marnage to contract another marriage during the subsistence of the first one.

The marriage is solemnized by each of the parties taking each other as husband and wife in the presence of witnesses. After the marriage, the registrar must complete the marriage certificate in duplicate. He, the parties and the witnesses sign the certificate; one copy is given to the married couple while the other is filed in the registrar's office. As in the case of a minister of religion, be tills in and signs the counterfoil.