Anand Karaj Registration: Court Marriage in Adarsh Nagar

Adarsh Nagar after the 2026 reorganisation

The Delhi government's notification of 25 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026, took the National Capital Territory from eleven revenue districts and thirty-three sub-divisions to thirteen and thirty-nine. The North district was reconstituted with three sub-divisions: Adarsh Nagar, Badli and Burari.

This is a change worth knowing about, because the North district's composition altered. Alipur and Model Town were previously among its sub-divisions and now sit elsewhere - Model Town in the newly created Central North district. If a page or a form tells you that North district comprises Alipur, Model Town and Narela, it was written before this year, and Narela is now in the newly created Outer North district.

The Adarsh Nagar sub-division covers Adarsh Nagar, Azadpur, Jahangirpuri, Bhalswa, Dhirpur, Rana Pratap Bagh and the belt along GT Karnal Road. The SDM functions as Marriage Officer for people resident within it, at the Revenue Department's published counter window of 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on any working day.

The Anand Marriage Act, 1909, and what it does

The Anand Marriage Act, 1909 is a short statute with a specific purpose. It validates marriages solemnised among Sikhs by the ceremony known as Anand, commonly called Anand Karaj - the ceremony performed before the Guru Granth Sahib with the four Lavan.

For most of its life the Act did exactly that and no more: it validated the ceremony, and registration of Sikh marriages in practice happened under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which applies to Sikhs among others. A great many Sikh couples in Delhi therefore hold a marriage certificate that describes their marriage as registered under the Hindu Marriage Act. That certificate is entirely valid, and nothing on this page suggests otherwise.

What changed is that Parliament added a registration provision of its own. The Anand Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2012 inserted section 6 into the 1909 Act, with effect from 1 November 2013, and section 6 makes provision for the registration of Anand Karaj marriages in a register kept for that purpose.

This matters as a question of description as much as of procedure. A Sikh couple married by Anand Karaj now has a route on which the certificate records what actually happened - a marriage solemnised by the Anand ceremony, registered under the Act that governs that ceremony.

Section 6, clause by clause

Five sub-sections, and each does something worth knowing.

Sub-section (1) empowers State Governments to make rules providing that the parties to a marriage solemnised by the Anand Karaj ceremony may have the particulars of their marriage entered in a Marriage Register kept by an officer authorised for the purpose.

Sub-section (2) provides that the Marriage Register is open to inspection, that it is admissible as evidence of the statements contained in it, and that certified extracts from it are to be given on application and on payment of the prescribed fee. That is the same evidential architecture used elsewhere in Indian marriage law - and it means a lost certificate is replaceable, because the entry, not your copy, is the record.

Sub-section (3) is the reassurance: omission to make an entry in the Marriage Register does not affect the validity of a marriage solemnised by the Anand Karaj ceremony. The ceremony makes the marriage. The register proves it.

Sub-section (4) requires the rules to be laid before the State Legislature.

Sub-section (5) is the one almost nobody has read, and it is the reason this page exists. It provides that where a marriage has been registered under this Act, the parties shall not be required to get the marriage registered under any other law for the time being in force, including any State Act.

Read that again if you are a Sikh couple who has been told you must register under the Hindu Marriage Act as well. You do not need two registrations. One registration under the Anand Marriage Act is, by the terms of section 6(5), enough.

• s.6(1) - State Governments may make rules for entry of Anand Karaj marriages in a Marriage Register
• s.6(2) - the register is open to inspection, admissible as evidence, and certified extracts are given on application and fee
• s.6(3) - omission to make an entry does not affect the validity of the marriage
• s.6(4) - the rules must be laid before the State Legislature
• s.6(5) - a marriage registered under this Act need not be registered under any other law in force

Delhi's position

Delhi notified rules under section 6 - the Delhi Anand Marriages Registration Rules, 2018. So the enabling provision has been given effect here, and Anand marriage registration is a route that exists in this territory rather than only in the parent statute.

That is not the position everywhere in India, which is why the subject reached the Supreme Court. In September 2025 the Court, in proceedings arising from a writ petition of 2022 heard by a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, directed States and Union Territories that had not framed rules under the Anand Marriage Act to notify them within a stipulated period, and directed that in the meantime marriages solemnised by Anand Karaj be registered under the existing civil registration frameworks without discrimination.

Two practical points follow for a couple in Delhi.

First, if you are told that no such thing as Anand marriage registration exists, that is not correct for this territory. Rules were notified in 2018.

Second, if a particular counter is unfamiliar with the route - and unfamiliarity is genuinely possible, because the volume on this route is small compared with the Hindu Marriage Act - the answer is not to argue but to ask, courteously, in writing, and to escalate calmly if necessary. Our Patparganj page sets out the escalation ladder. What you should not do is conclude that your marriage cannot be registered: the Delhi Order 2014 covers all marriages solemnised in Delhi 'irrespective of caste creed and religion' under clause 1(b), so there is always a route.

We are describing the framework as it stands in the statute, the Delhi rules and the Supreme Court's directions. For the current forms and fee at a particular office, ask that office - and get the answer in writing if it differs from what you expected.

The Hindu Marriage Act route, which also remains available

It is worth being clear that the Anand route is an addition, not a replacement.

Section 2 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 applies it to Sikhs, among others. So a Sikh couple may register under section 8 of that Act read with the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014, exactly as they always could. Clause 4(a) gives sixty days from the marriage, excluding the day of the final ceremony, on a fee of Rs 200. Clause 4(d) requires the parties to appear in person with two witnesses who can certify to the solemnisation and who hold proof of permanent residence in Delhi. Clause 6 allows condonation of up to sixty further days on Rs 500; clause 7 imposes a Rs 1,000 penalty beyond that, remittable by the Additional District Magistrate or District Magistrate; clause 10 provides an optional priority facility for Rs 10,000.

Many couples take this route simply because it is the one every office processes daily, and there is nothing wrong with that. A certificate under the Hindu Marriage Act is a full marriage certificate.

Which to choose is genuinely a matter of preference. The Anand route describes the marriage by the ceremony that created it and carries the section 6(5) consequence. The Hindu Marriage Act route is the high-volume path with the most familiar paperwork. Both produce a government record of the same marriage.

And the Special Marriage Act, 1954 remains available too, as it is to everybody - a secular route open to any two persons meeting the four conditions in section 4, at the cost of a thirty-day notice period. It is the route an interfaith couple needs, and it is available even where a personal law would also have applied.

What proves an Anand Karaj took place

Whichever route you take, the registration file rests on evidence that the ceremony actually happened. This is not a formality, and the reason is a Supreme Court decision.

In Dolly Rani v. Manish Kumar Chanchal (2024) the Court held that a Hindu marriage requires the ceremonies to have actually been performed and that a registration certificate cannot create a marriage that never took place. The principle applies to any ceremony-based marriage: the certificate records, it does not manufacture.

So gather and keep the following. The certificate or record issued by the gurdwara where the Anand Karaj was performed, with the date and the officiant's details. Photographs of the ceremony - the Lavan in particular. The invitation card. And the names and contact details of the two witnesses who will appear with you.

Keep them together and keep a scan. Twenty years from now, if a certificate is ever questioned, that folder is what it rests on.

On the other documents, the Revenue Department's published lists apply as they do everywhere in Delhi. For age: matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate - three documents, and Aadhaar is not among them. For residence: voter I-Card, ration card, driving licence or passport. Self-attest everything and carry originals for verification.

• The gurdwara's certificate or register record of the Anand Karaj, with date and officiant
• Photographs of the ceremony, attested
• The invitation card, if there is one
• Application form signed by both parties
• Proof of date of birth for each party: matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate
• Proof of residence for each party: voter I-card, ration card, driving licence or passport
• Affidavits: date and place of the marriage, marital status, no prohibited relationship
• Passport photographs of both parties, attested
• Two witnesses who attended the ceremony, with Delhi permanent residence proof
• Certified copy of any divorce decree, or death certificate of a previous spouse
• Fee receipt

Late registration, and the thing not to worry about

If your Anand Karaj was years ago and nothing was ever registered, you have not lost anything.

Section 6(3) of the Anand Marriage Act says it directly: omission to make an entry in the Marriage Register does not affect the validity of a marriage solemnised by the Anand Karaj ceremony. Section 8(5) of the Hindu Marriage Act says the same thing on that side - the validity of a Hindu marriage 'shall in no way be affected by the omission to make the entry'.

What you have lost is proof, and proof is what a passport office, a bank, an insurer, a foreign mission and eventually a succession court will each ask for.

The cost of being late is bounded and published. Under the Delhi Order 2014, clause 6 allows the Marriage Officer to condone a delay of up to sixty days beyond the initial sixty on an additional Rs 500, and clause 7 imposes a Rs 1,000 penalty beyond that, which the Additional District Magistrate or District Magistrate may remit. That is the whole exposure. It is a fee and a form, not a threat to your marriage.

So register it, take two certified extracts rather than one, and photograph the certificate the same day.