What Court Marriage Actually Costs: Shalimar Bagh

Shalimar Bagh in a district created this year

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, and created three new districts - Old Delhi, Central North and Outer North.

Shalimar Bagh is a sub-division of Central North, with Model Town and Shakur Basti. Model Town came across from the North district. Our Shakur Basti page sets out the complete 2026 map, all thirteen districts and all thirty-nine sub-divisions, if you need to check which district a locality now belongs to.

The Revenue Department's published counter window is 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on any working day, at the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate in whose jurisdiction either the husband or the wife resides. Its separate registration of marriage page gives 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., so reach the office by 9.30.

The government fees, with the clause each comes from

These are fixed, published and receipted. Nobody sets them and nobody can vary them.

Clause 4 of the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014 requires the joint application in Form A to be accompanied by 'the requisite fee of Rupees Two Hundred'. That is the registration fee.

The Revenue Department's marriage registration page separately states a fee of Rs 100, deposited with the Marriage Clerk with the receipt attached to the application form, for registration under the Hindu Marriage Act rules. Both figures are genuine; they belong to different instruments, and the receipt will tell you which you paid. Neither is a scam and neither is out of date.

Clause 6 provides that where the marriage was not registered within the prescribed period of sixty days, the Marriage Officer may condone a delay not exceeding a further sixty days, subject to an additional fee of Rupees Five hundred.

Clause 7 provides that a party who has not registered within the prescribed or extended period suffers a penalty of Rupees One Thousand imposed by the Marriage Officer - and the Additional District Magistrate or District Magistrate may remit it.

Clause 10 provides that to facilitate registration in case of urgency on a priority basis, an optional facility is available subject to payment of an additional fee of Rupees Ten Thousand.

And section 47 of the Special Marriage Act and section 8(4) of the Hindu Marriage Act each entitle you to certified extracts from the register on application and on payment of the prescribed fee.

That is the complete list of what the government charges for this process. If a figure you are quoted is not on it and is not described as a professional fee, ask what it is.

The incidentals nobody mentions

These are small, they are real, and they are the reason a quote of 'Rs 200' never quite matches what you actually spend.

Affidavits. Both parties file affidavits as to the date and place of the marriage, marital status at the time, and that the parties are not within the degrees of prohibited relationship. Each involves stamp paper and drafting.

Notarisation. Affidavits are notarised, and notarial fees are charged per document.

Photographs. Passport photographs for both parties, usually two each and attested, plus prints of the ceremony photographs for the file.

Photocopies and attestation. Every document goes in as a self-attested copy with the original for verification, and there are more of them than people expect - two sets of age proof, residence proof, identity proof, the witnesses' documents.

Certified copies of a decree. Where either party was married before, a certified copy of the decree of divorce, sealed and signed by the court, obtained from the court's copying agency for a fee. Not a photocopy - our Jangpura page explains why files are returned for this.

Additional certified extracts of the certificate. Worth budgeting for two rather than one, because banks, passport offices, insurers and consulates each keep the copy you give them.

Travel and a lost half-day. Two people, plus two witnesses, plus a morning. On the Special Marriage Act route, twice - once for the notice and once for the solemnisation, thirty-one days apart.

None of these is large. Together they are the difference between the fee you were quoted and the money that actually left your hands, and an honest quote mentions them.

• Stamp paper and drafting for the affidavits
• Notarial fees
• Passport photographs for both parties, attested
• Prints of the ceremony photographs
• Photocopies of every document, self-attested
• A certified copy of any divorce decree, from the court's copying agency
• Two certified extracts of the certificate rather than one
• Travel, and a morning for each of four people

The professional fee, and what legitimately changes it

This is a matter of agreement, not of law, and it should be quoted as a figure, in writing, before anything is filed. What we can set out honestly is what makes such work genuinely more or less involved - because a fee that varies for those reasons is being charged for something, and a fee that varies for no stated reason is not.

Which route. Registration of a marriage already solemnised is a single filing and a single appearance. A Special Marriage Act solemnisation is a notice, a thirty-day period, an appearance for solemnisation, and the risk of an objection to be handled under sections 7 to 9. More work, and it should cost more.

Whether documents need fixing first. A name spelt two ways across documents, an Aadhaar being used as age proof, an unregistered birth needing delayed registration under section 13(3) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 - each is a separate task that takes weeks and is not part of a registration.

Whether there is a previous marriage. Obtaining and checking a certified decree, and checking that the thirty-day appeal period under section 28(4) of the Hindu Marriage Act had expired before the second marriage, is real work with real consequences.

Whether a foreign national or an overseas party is involved. No-impediment certificates, visas, apostilles, translations. Different missions, different timelines.

Whether an objection is filed. An inquiry under section 8, conducted with civil court powers under section 9(1), and a possible appeal to the district court under section 8(2), is litigation-shaped work.

Whether protection is needed. A writ petition is a separate matter from a registration and should be quoted as one.

What should not change the fee: urgency alone. Nothing anybody does shortens the thirty-day notice under sections 5 to 7 of the Special Marriage Act, and the only lawful priority facility is the Rs 10,000 government fee under clause 10. A premium charged for speed that the statute does not permit is a premium for nothing.

How to read a quote

Four questions. They are not confrontational and a straightforward professional answers all four in a minute.

What is the government fee, and what is your fee? Two numbers. This single question resolves most of what goes wrong in this field, because nearly everything dishonest depends on the two staying merged.

Will I receive the receipt for the government fee? Yes is the only acceptable answer. Government fees are receipted; that is what makes them government fees.

What is included, and what is extra? Are the affidavits and notarisation inside the figure or outside it? How many certified extracts? Is a second visit included?

What is the realistic timeline? Days for a registration where the file is complete. Thirty-one days minimum for a Special Marriage Act marriage, plus the section 14 requirement that the marriage take place within three calendar months of the notice or it lapses. A quote that promises less than the statute allows is quoting on something that cannot happen.

And one thing to notice rather than ask about: whether the offices and districts being named are the 2026 ones. Seven sub-divisions ceased to exist on 1 January 2026 and Shahdara is no longer a district. Somebody quoting confidently while naming an office that closed eight months ago is quoting on out-of-date knowledge, whatever the figure says.

• Government fee and professional fee, as two written figures
• Confirmation that you get the government receipt
• What is included and what is extra
• The realistic timeline, matching what the statute allows
• Offices and districts named from the 2026 map, not the old one

Where money is genuinely wasted

Not on fees. On avoidable repeats.

A returned file costs a morning for four people - both parties and both witnesses - and the commonest causes are a missing self-attestation, an unsigned photograph, an Aadhaar presented as age proof, a photocopy of a decree instead of a certified copy, or a witness without Delhi permanent residence proof under clause 4(d). Our Burari page lists them all. Every one is preventable at home.

A lapsed notice costs the entire thirty-day period again. Section 14 of the Special Marriage Act provides that where the marriage is not solemnised within three calendar months from the date of the notice, the notice and all proceedings arising from it lapse, and no Marriage Officer may solemnise until a fresh notice is given. Couples who file early and then postpone pay for that twice. Our Bawana page explains it.

A late registration costs Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 under clauses 6 and 7. Small, and entirely avoidable by filing inside the sixty days.

And an error in the certificate costs the most of all, because section 49 of the Special Marriage Act allows a correction by marginal entry only within one month of the error's discovery. After that it stops being a counter task. Reading the certificate before you leave the building is free.

Add those up and the pattern is clear: the expensive part of this process is not the fee. It is doing it twice.

The two routes, and the honest bottom line

If your ceremony has happened and both of you are Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh: registration under section 8 of the Hindu Marriage Act with the Delhi Order 2014. Sixty days from the marriage under clause 4(a), excluding the day of the final ceremony, Rs 200. Both parties appear in person with two witnesses who attended the ceremony and hold Delhi permanent residence proof, under clause 4(d). No notice, no publication, no objection stage, and where the file is complete it is a matter of days.

If there has been no ceremony, or you are of different faiths: the Special Marriage Act. Notice under section 5 to the Marriage Officer of a district where at least one of you has resided for thirty days immediately preceding; publication under section 6; thirty days for objections under section 7, limited to the four conditions in section 4; solemnisation on or after the thirty-first day before three witnesses under section 11; and the certificate under section 13, which section 13(2) makes conclusive evidence of the marriage. Within three calendar months of the notice, per section 14.

Document lists, unchanged and published: age proof is a matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate - Aadhaar is not among them; residence proof is a voter I-Card, ration card, driving licence or passport.

And the bottom line on cost. The government's part of this is a few hundred rupees in the ordinary case, and at most Rs 10,000 more if you choose the optional priority facility under clause 10. Everything above that is a professional fee for professional work, and it should be quoted separately, in writing, before anything is filed. That is the whole test.