Arya Samaj Marriage Documents in Delhi

The two lists nobody separates

If you have spent an hour reading about Arya Samaj marriage documents and come away confused, it is not you. It is that almost every page treats this as one checklist when it is two, and the two have different authorities behind them, different contents and different consequences for getting them wrong.

The first list belongs to the mandir. It is what the institution wants in order to perform the ceremony - to satisfy itself that you are both of age, that you are who you say you are, that neither of you has a subsisting marriage, and that the witnesses are real people. A mandir is a private institution, so this list is a house rule. It varies between mandirs, and no statute prescribes it.

The second list belongs to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. It is what the government requires to register the marriage under Section 8 of the Hindu Marriage Act and issue the certificate that a passport office, a bank, an embassy or a court will actually accept. This one is published, by the Revenue Department of the Government of NCT of Delhi, and it does not vary by whim.

Once you hold those two apart, the contradictions on the internet resolve themselves. When one website says four photographs and another says six, they are both describing mandir practice, and both may be right about their own mandir. When a third says ten, it is describing the registration stage and is simply wrong about it. Nobody is lying; they are describing different things without labelling them.

This page separates them. Read the mandir section for what to carry on the wedding day, and the SDM section for what to carry to the registration appointment - and note that some items appear on both lists and some appear on only one.

List one: what the mandir asks for

This is a composite of what Delhi mandirs commonly require. Treat it as a preparation list rather than a legal requirement, and confirm the specifics with the institution you are going to - because it is their rule, and they differ.

Note the phrasing carefully on photographs. You will see four, five and six quoted across different mandirs, and eight where a party was previously of another religion. All of those are house rules. Carry six each and you will be over-supplied at every mandir we have dealt with, which is the cheapest form of insurance available in this process.

• Age proof for both, any one of: matriculation certificate, passport, birth certificate, driving licence, voter ID or PAN card. Mandirs are usually flexible here
• Address proof for both, any one of: Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card, driving licence, passport or a utility bill. Note that a PAN card is not address proof - it carries no address on it
• Passport-size photographs of both parties - commonly four to six each, depending on the mandir. Carry six
• Two witnesses, from either side, with their own identity and address proof
• One to three passport-size photographs of each witness, depending on the mandir
• An affidavit from each party in most Delhi mandirs, stating date of birth and marital status - a house rule rather than a statutory requirement at this stage, but commonly asked
• Where either party was married before: the decree of divorce, or the death certificate of the former spouse. This is not optional and a mandir that does not ask for it is not protecting you
• Ceremony items as the mandir specifies - typically two garlands, a mangalsutra, sweets, fruit, havan samagri and ghee. Ask for their own list
• Appropriate dress. Several mandirs decline jeans and casual wear

List two: what the SDM asks for

This is the one that matters legally, and unlike the mandir's list it is published. What follows is the Revenue Department of the Government of NCT of Delhi's own requirement for registration of a Hindu marriage, set out in its terms.

Read item eight and item nine especially. Item eight is where the photograph count actually comes from - two copies each, not four or six - and item nine is what makes an Arya Samaj marriage registrable at all: where the marriage was solemnised at a religious place, a certificate from the priest is required. That is the slot your mandir certificate fits into.

• Application form duly signed by both husband and wife
• Fee of Rs 100, deposited with the Marriage Clerk, with the receipt appended to the form
• Self-attested documentary evidence of date of birth of both parties - matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate
• Self-attested residential proof of both parties - voter ID card, ration card, driving licence, passport and the like
• Self-attested marriage invitation card, if available. Note the words "if available" - it is not fatal if you do not have one
• Separate affidavits in the prescribed format from husband and wife giving: the date and place of marriage; date of birth; marital status at the time of marriage; an affirmation that the parties are not related to each other within the prohibited degree of relationship under the Hindu Marriage Act; and citizenship
• A certificate containing the attested photographs of the husband and wife, duly attested by any officer or official of the central or state government
• Passport-size photographs of both parties, two copies each, as well as their ceremonial photographs, duly attested
• Where the marriage was solemnised at a religious place, a certificate from the priest
• Attested copy of the divorce decree or order in the case of a divorce, and the death certificate of the spouse in the case of a widow or widower
• For a foreign national: a certificate from the embassy concerned regarding their present marital status
• Where one party belongs to a religion other than Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh: a conversion certificate from the priest who solemnised the marriage

Why every website gives a different photograph count

This deserves its own section because it is the single most confusing thing about the subject, and the explanation is simple once the two lists are separated.

The numbers you will find published across the pages currently ranking for this search range from four to ten each, and the pages contradict not only each other but themselves - one Delhi mandir's website says six on its documents page and four on its procedure page.

None of them is fabricating. The mandir figures are house rules, and mandirs genuinely differ. The registration figure is fixed and published. What is missing everywhere is the label saying which stage is being described.

The practical answer, therefore, is not to hunt for the true number. It is to carry six each. That covers every mandir house rule we have encountered, leaves you the two copies each the SDM needs, and leaves spares for the witness photographs and the attested identification certificate. Photographs cost very little and a shortage of them on the morning costs you the appointment.

The requirement nobody mentions: the Gazetted Officer

Across the eleven pages currently ranking for this search, not one mentions this. It is on the government's own page, and it turns couples away at the counter with everything else in order.

The Revenue Department states, for registration under the Hindu Marriage Act, that on the appointed day both parties, along with a Gazetted Officer who attended their marriage, need to be present before the SDM.

Read both limbs. A Gazetted Officer - a government officer of gazetted rank, whose appointment is published in the official Gazette. And one who actually attended your marriage. Someone of gazetted rank who was not at the wedding does not satisfy it as published; nor does someone who was at the wedding but holds no such post.

Note that this is a different requirement from the mandir's two witnesses, and different again from the three witnesses the Special Marriage Act requires. Every page that tells you "two witnesses with Aadhaar" for the whole process is describing the mandir stage and calling it the registration stage.

If you are planning your wedding, this is worth acting on now rather than later. If there is anyone in either family who holds a gazetted post - a serving officer, a government doctor, a public-sector officer of rank - ensure they attend the ceremony and are photographed there. That single piece of forward planning removes an entire category of problem.

If the wedding has already happened and nobody of that description was present, do not assume you are stuck. Practice varies between offices, and what a particular SDM accepts in particular circumstances is a question to put to that office - before the appointment, not at the counter. That call is free and it takes five minutes.

Witnesses at the mandir, and what changed in August 2024

The mandir requirement has historically been two witnesses from either side, with their own identity and address proof. That remains the common practice. But there has been a development that couples marrying without family support need to know about, and no ranking page covers it.

In Mukesh Kumar Sen v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2024:DHC:6312-DB, decided on 27 August 2024 by a Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Amit Sharma, the Delhi High Court directed that a temple shall ensure that when witnesses are produced for the purposes of marriage, they are genuine and bona fide witnesses whose status can be verified properly. It further directed that the temple shall endeavour to call at least one witness who is a relative, from both sides - and, where there is no relative, that some acquaintance who knows the parties concerned for a reasonable period of time shall be permitted to become a witness. A copy of the order was sent to the Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi.

Two points of accuracy, because this gets overstated. The word is endeavour, not shall - it is a best-efforts direction. And there is an express fallback for couples with no relative available: a long-standing acquaintance is permitted. Several secondary reports present this as an absolute requirement for a relative, which it is not.

The directions were addressed to a particular mandir rather than laid down as a general rule binding every institution in Delhi. But the order went to the Chief Secretary, it was widely reported, and Delhi mandirs have tightened witness practice in response. A couple turning up now with two strangers will meet more resistance than they would have in 2023.

The practical translation: bring witnesses who genuinely know you and can say how, for how long. If a relative from either side will come, that is best. If none will, an acquaintance of several years is expressly contemplated. What will not do is two people met that morning - and anyone offering to supply witnesses is offering you a defect in your own certificate.

Affidavits - which stage, and what they must say

This is the item the ranking pages contradict each other on most sharply. Four of them say two separate affidavits are required. Six do not mention affidavits at all. One website says both, on two different pages.

The reason is the same as the photographs. At the mandir stage, an affidavit is a house rule - most Delhi mandirs ask for one from each party stating date of birth and marital status, and some do not. At the registration stage it is not optional at all.

The Revenue Department requires separate affidavits in the prescribed format from husband and wife, and it specifies the contents: the date and place of marriage; date of birth; marital status at the time of marriage; an affirmation that the parties are not related within the prohibited degree of relationship under the Hindu Marriage Act; and citizenship.

So the accurate answer to "do we need an affidavit" is: possibly at the mandir, certainly at the registration, and the registration one has a prescribed form and five required contents rather than being free text.

The affirmation about prohibited degrees is the part people gloss over, and it is a statement on oath. Section 3(g) of the Hindu Marriage Act defines the degrees of prohibited relationship and Section 3(f) defines sapinda relationship, and a marriage within either is void under Section 11 unless a custom governing each of the parties permits it. If your marriage sits anywhere near those lines, resolve it before somebody signs an affidavit about it. Our Hindu Marriage Act page explains how the sapinda rule is actually counted, which is genuinely not obvious.

Age proof and address proof - what actually counts

Two small sections of practical detail that save wasted trips.

On age, the Revenue Department names three documents: matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate. Mandirs are usually more flexible and will take a driving licence, voter ID or PAN as well. The point worth stating plainly, because anxious readers ask it constantly: a birth certificate is not compulsory. If you hold a matriculation certificate or a passport, that is what the government's own list contemplates.

What matters far more than which document you use is that they agree with each other. A date of birth that differs between the school certificate and the Aadhaar is the single most common reason a Delhi marriage registration file is returned, and it has to be fixed at the source rather than explained at the counter.

On address, the published list names voter ID card, ration card, driving licence and passport. Aadhaar is accepted in practice and is what most people use. One useful detail that only a single ranking page mentions and that is worth repeating: a PAN card is not address proof, because it does not carry an address. It is perfectly good as identity or age proof and useless for this purpose.

The address you file also decides jurisdiction - you register with the SDM of the sub-division where either of you resides. Delhi's revenue districts were reorganised on 1 January 2026 from 11 districts and 22 sub-divisions to 13 and 39, so if you are working from an older list of offices, check it. Our SDM office page sets out the current structure.

Special situations - divorcee, widow, NRI, foreign national

Three of the eleven ranking pages omit these entirely, which is not a small oversight. A divorcee arriving without a decree will be turned away, and a second marriage where the first was never dissolved is void under Section 11 and bigamy under Section 17.

If either party was married before and divorced, you need an attested copy of the decree of divorce or order. Not a photocopy of a draft, not an order sheet, and not an assurance that the divorce is nearly through. Separation is not divorce and a pending petition is not a decree. Our second marriage page sets out when remarriage is lawful under Section 15, which turns on the appeal position rather than on any waiting period.

If either party is a widow or widower, you need the death certificate of the former spouse.

If either party is a foreign national, the published Delhi requirement is a certificate from the concerned embassy regarding their present marital status. Several sites additionally list a no-impediment certificate and a valid visa, which is consistent with practice. One thing to disregard: some pages state a requirement of thirty days' residence in India for a foreign party. That is the Special Marriage Act notice requirement under Section 4 and it does not apply to a Hindu Marriage Act marriage. Repeating it has sent NRI couples down the wrong path.

For NRI couples the practical trap is different and larger: the registration appointment ordinarily needs both spouses present, so if one flies back before the file is in, the next appointment costs an international ticket. Register inside the trip. Our NRI page covers planning around travel dates.

What you do NOT need

A negative checklist, because half the anxiety in this process comes from things people believe are required and are not. Every item here is something we are asked about weekly.

• A birth certificate, if you hold a matriculation certificate or a passport. The published list treats them as alternatives
• A PAN card as address proof - it carries no address. It is fine as identity or age proof
• A newspaper notice or announcement. That is not part of the Hindu Marriage Act at all
• A thirty-day waiting period. There is no notice period under the Hindu Marriage Act - that is the Special Marriage Act
• Thirty days of residence in Delhi. Also a Special Marriage Act requirement, and not applicable here
• Three witnesses. That is the Special Marriage Act figure. The mandir norm is two, and the SDM requires a Gazetted Officer who attended
• Your parents' consent, permission or signature. Section 5 lists the conditions for a valid Hindu marriage and parental consent is not among them
• The marriage invitation card, if you do not have one. The published list says "if available"
• A lawyer, for the registration itself. It is documentation work, and with clean documents and time in hand many couples do it themselves

What the mandir gives you, and how it feeds the SDM file

This is the join between the two lists, and understanding it makes the whole sequence obvious.

At the end of the ceremony the mandir gives you its certificate, and usually makes an entry in its own register. That certificate is a record issued by a religious institution. It is not a government document, it cannot be apostilled, and passport offices and consulates generally will not accept it alone.

What it is, is the document that fills item nine of the SDM's list: where the marriage was solemnised at a religious place, a certificate from the priest is required. That is its job. It is the evidence that a ceremony took place, which is what makes your marriage registrable.

Two other things you should collect at the mandir and almost nobody tells you to. First, photographs showing the rites actually being performed - the fire, the vows, the seven steps - not only the garlanding and the group photograph afterwards. These are your ceremonial photographs for item eight, and they matter more since the Supreme Court held in Dolly Rani v. Manish Kumar Chanchal (2024) that a certificate proves validity only where a marriage has actually taken place. Second, the purohit's name and contact details, and the mandir's register entry or serial number. The Allahabad High Court held in Maharaj Singh v. State of U.P., 2025 SCC OnLine All 2133 (8 April 2025) that although the Arya Samaj certificate does not carry the statutory force of prima facie proof, it can be substantiated by the purohit who performed the marriage. Knowing who he is has real value if the marriage is ever questioned.

So: certificate, ceremony photographs, register entry, purohit's details. Four things, collected in ten minutes on the day, which are difficult or impossible to reconstruct a year later.

Timelines, and what happens if you are late

Three clocks run in this process and they are commonly confused.

The Revenue Department's published expectation for a Hindu Marriage Act registration is a response normally within 15 days for a complete file. That is the processing time, not a deadline for you.

Your deadline is 60 days. Order 4(a) of the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014 requires the application within 60 days of the final ceremony, excluding the day it was solemnised, at a fee of Rs 200 under Order 4(b).

Miss it and nothing is lost. Order 6 allows condonation of the delay on a further fee of Rs 500, and Order 7's penalty of Rs 1,000 for failure to register may be remitted by the Additional District Magistrate or District Magistrate for reasonable cause. Marriages from many years ago are registered in Delhi routinely. What changes is that an older file needs a stronger evidence base - which is exactly why the four things collected on the day matter so much.

And a practical clock nobody publishes: SDM offices receive marriage applications between 9.30 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on working days. Three and a half hours, no Saturdays, no Sundays, no gazetted holidays. Arriving at 12.45 with a queue ahead of you is arriving after closing.

The mistakes that actually cost people a morning

After a large number of these files, the failures are boringly consistent, and almost none of them are legal problems.

• A name spelled differently on the Aadhaar and the matriculation certificate, or a middle name present on one document and absent on another
• A date of birth that does not agree across the age proof, the affidavit and the application form
• Bringing two witnesses with ID to a Hindu Marriage Act registration, where the published requirement is a Gazetted Officer who attended the marriage
• Photographs that show the reception rather than the rites - a reception photograph is not a ceremony photograph
• No certificate or letter from the mandir or purohit, which is item nine of the SDM's list
• Address proof whose address does not fall in the sub-division being applied in - more likely this year, because the district map changed on 1 January 2026
• An earlier marriage mentioned in the affidavit with no decree or death certificate attached
• Too few photographs, because a website said four and the office wanted more copies
• Applying beyond 60 days with no condonation application prepared
• Arriving after 1 p.m., or on a Saturday
• Only one spouse attending, with nothing on the file explaining it in advance

How we help with the documents

The document pre-check is the part that actually decides whether your file goes through, and it is free.

We read every document against every other one - names, spellings, dates of birth, parentage, addresses - and tell you what disagrees before it reaches a counter rather than after. We confirm which sub-division you now fall in under the reorganised district map, and what your specific SDM office expects on witnesses, including the Gazetted Officer question. We draft and notarise the affidavits in the prescribed format with the five required contents. We assemble the ceremony evidence and the mandir letter. We prepare the condonation application where the marriage is more than 60 days old. And we file inside the morning window and follow through until the certificate is issued.

What we will not do is supply witnesses who did not attend your wedding, arrange a conversion certificate, or send you to a place that issues certificates rather than solemnising marriages. Each of those produces a document that fails at the moment you need it to hold.

Send photographs of your documents on WhatsApp and you will get a straight answer on what is missing, what disagrees, and what your file needs - before you book a date or pay anybody anything.

A note on how to read this page

This is general information about the documents for an Arya Samaj marriage and its registration in Delhi as at 2026, not advice on your case.

The SDM list here follows the Revenue Department of the Government of NCT of Delhi's published requirements, and the fees and timelines are theirs and the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014. Confirm them at the office where you are filing before you rely on any figure, including these.

The mandir list is a composite of common Delhi practice and is a house rule, not law. Ask the institution you are going to for its own current list - and note that it is entitled to ask for more than the government does.

One development to watch rather than to plan around: in March 2025 the Delhi High Court was critical of the non-implementation of compulsory marriage registration and gave the Union and Delhi governments time to comply, in proceedings where online registration with virtual presence of the couple and witnesses has been sought. If that is implemented it would change the physical-presence practice described here. We have found no indication that it has been notified, so everything above reflects the position as it currently stands.