Can We Legally Marry? Court Marriage in Yamuna Vihar

Yamuna Vihar 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 East district comprises four sub-divisions: Yamuna Vihar, Shahdara, Karawal Nagar and Gokalpur.

One thing worth flagging for readers of older material: Shahdara used to be a district in its own right and is not one any more. If a page tells you to go to 'Shahdara district', it was written before this year.

The Yamuna Vihar sub-division covers Yamuna Vihar blocks, Bhajanpura, Ghonda, Subhash Vihar, Brahmpuri, Kartar Nagar and the colonies along Wazirabad 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.

Why this is the condition people get wrong

Look at the four conditions in section 4 of the Special Marriage Act, or the corresponding conditions in section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, and notice how differently they behave.

A spouse living - answered by a decree or a death certificate. Capacity to consent - a question you and your family already know the answer to. Age - answered by a matriculation certificate, a passport or a birth certificate.

Relationship is not like those. It is not on any document you hold. It is a fact about two family trees, and the person best placed to know it is usually an elderly relative rather than either of you. Families that have lived in the same locality for generations, and communities where marriages have historically been arranged within a known circle, encounter it far more often than families that moved a long way and married outside.

And the consequence is severe. Section 11 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides that a marriage is null and void, and may be so declared by a decree of nullity, if it contravenes the conditions in clauses (i), (iv) or (v) of section 5 - and (iv) and (v) are precisely the prohibited-relationship and sapinda conditions. Under the Special Marriage Act, section 24 makes a marriage null and void where any of the conditions in section 4(a) to (d) was not fulfilled.

Void is not the same as irregular. A void marriage was never a marriage. Nothing that follows from marriage follows from it.

It is also one of the four permitted grounds of objection. Section 7 of the Special Marriage Act allows any person to object within thirty days of publication of the notice, on the ground that the marriage would contravene one or more of the conditions in section 4 - and a relative who thinks you are within the prohibited degrees is exactly the person who files such an objection.

So this is worth settling before the notice is filed, calmly, with the family members who actually know.

What the prohibited degrees are

The two statutes list them in different ways, but the substance is close.

Section 3(g) of the Hindu Marriage Act defines the degrees of prohibited relationship. Two persons are within them: '(i) if one is a lineal ascendant of the other; or (ii) if one was the wife or husband of a lineal ascendant or descendant of the other; or (iii) if one was the wife of the brother or of the father's or mother's brother or of the grandfather's or grandmother's brother of the other; or (iv) if the two are brother and sister, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, or children of brother and sister or of two brothers or of two sisters'.

Read limb (iv) slowly, because it is where most real questions land. Children of two brothers - that is, paternal first cousins. Children of two sisters - maternal first cousins. Children of a brother and a sister - cross cousins. All three are within the prohibited degrees under the Hindu Marriage Act.

The Special Marriage Act does it by schedule. Section 2(b) provides that a man and any of the persons mentioned in Part I of the First Schedule, and a woman and any of the persons mentioned in Part II, are within the degrees of prohibited relationship. Part I lists the relations a man may not marry; Part II lists those a woman may not marry. The Explanation to the section records that relationship by full blood means descent from a common ancestor by the same wife, and by half blood, descent from a common ancestor by different wives - and half blood counts.

One point that surprises people: the lists include relationships created by marriage, not only by blood. A brother's widow, the widow of a father's brother, the wife of a lineal ascendant - these appear in the prohibitions, and the Schedule's own notes record that 'widow' and 'husband' there include a divorced spouse. Two people who are not related by blood at all can still be within the prohibited degrees because of an earlier marriage in the family.

• A lineal ascendant or descendant
• The former spouse of a lineal ascendant or descendant
• A brother's widow; the widow of a father's or mother's brother; the widow of a grandfather's or grandmother's brother
• Brother and sister
• Uncle and niece; aunt and nephew
• Children of two brothers (paternal first cousins)
• Children of two sisters (maternal first cousins)
• Children of a brother and a sister (cross cousins)
• Half-blood relationships count as much as full blood

Sapinda: the additional Hindu Marriage Act condition

The Hindu Marriage Act adds a second and wider condition that has no counterpart in the Special Marriage Act. Section 5(v) requires that the parties are not sapindas of each other, unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits a marriage between them.

Section 3(f) defines it. Sapinda relationship with reference to any person 'extends as far as the third generation (inclusive) in the line of ascent through the mother, and the fifth (inclusive) in the line of ascent through the father', the line being traced upwards from the person concerned, who is counted as the first generation. Two persons are sapindas of each other if one is a lineal ascendant of the other within those limits, or if they have a common lineal ascendant who is within those limits in relation to each of them.

In practice this means counting generations upward, and counting differently on the two sides. Three generations through the mother's line - you, your mother, your maternal grandmother. Five through the father's line - you, your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, your great-great-grandfather. If a common ancestor sits inside those limits for both of you, you are sapindas.

That is a wider net than the prohibited degrees, and it reaches relationships that families do not think of as close at all - a shared great-great-grandfather on the paternal side, for instance, in a community where the whole extended family descends from a known ancestor.

It is also the reason that the honest answer to 'is our marriage allowed' is sometimes 'sit down with the oldest person in your family and draw both trees'. Nobody enjoys hearing that. It is far better than hearing it from a Marriage Officer conducting an inquiry under section 8.

The custom exception - and the difference that matters

Both statutes allow custom to displace these prohibitions. They do not allow it on the same terms, and the difference is one of the few places where the choice of route genuinely changes whether a marriage may happen at all.

Under the Special Marriage Act, the proviso to section 4(d) permits the marriage where a custom governing at least one of the parties permits a marriage between them. At least one.

Under the Hindu Marriage Act, section 5(iv) requires that 'the custom or usage governing each of them permits of a marriage between the two', and section 5(v) is worded to the same effect for sapindas. Each of them.

So consider a couple where one party's community has a well-established custom of cross-cousin marriage - which is the position in a number of communities in southern India and in some others - and the other party's community does not. On the Hindu Marriage Act route, the requirement that the custom govern each of them is not satisfied. On the Special Marriage Act route, a custom governing at least one of them is enough.

That is a real and useful distinction, and it is almost never mentioned. It is also not a loophole to be reached for casually. A custom relied on has to be an actual custom - established, continuous, certain, and applicable to the community in question - and it has to be capable of being demonstrated if challenged, through evidence of the practice rather than assertion. If your marriage rests on custom, gather that material before you file: who follows it, for how long, and who can speak to it.

Two further cautions. A custom that is contrary to public policy or to law is not saved by being a custom. And the fact that a marriage of this kind happened in your family before does not by itself establish a custom - a single instance is an instance, not a usage.

How to work it out before you file

This is a practical exercise and it takes an afternoon.

Draw both family trees, upward, on paper. Go five generations on each father's side and three on each mother's side - that is what section 3(f) requires you to check for sapinda. Put in names, not just relationships, because names are how you will spot a shared ancestor.

Do it with the oldest available relative on each side. They will remember a marriage two generations back that nobody younger has heard of, and that marriage is often exactly what creates a prohibited relationship through affinity rather than blood.

Then check the specific list. Are you children of two brothers, of two sisters, or of a brother and a sister? Is either of you the former spouse, or the widow, of someone in the other's line? Is there a common ancestor within the sapinda limits?

If the answer to all of that is no, this condition is not your problem and you can stop thinking about it.

If the answer to any of it is yes, or if you are unsure, take advice with the family trees in front of you before filing anything. This is the one condition where going ahead and hoping is genuinely dangerous, because the consequence is not a returned file - it is a void marriage, and a decree of nullity years later.

And if the answer is yes but a custom applies, decide the route deliberately. The Special Marriage Act's 'at least one of the parties' test is more forgiving than the Hindu Marriage Act's 'each of them'.

• Draw both trees upward - five generations on each paternal line, three on each maternal line
• Use names, not just relationships
• Do it with the oldest relative on each side
• Check the s.3(g) list, including relationships created by an earlier marriage
• Look for a common ancestor within the sapinda limits
• If anything is unclear, take advice with the trees in front of you - before filing
• If a custom applies, gather evidence of the practice, and choose the route deliberately

If somebody objects on this ground

On the Special Marriage Act route, this is one of the four things an objection may allege, so it is worth knowing how the machinery works.

Section 7 allows any person to object within thirty days of publication of the notice under section 6(2), on the ground that the marriage would contravene one or more of the conditions in section 4. Section 8 requires the Marriage Officer to inquire into the objection and provides that he 'shall not take more than thirty days from the date of the objection for the purpose of inquiring into the matter of the objection and arriving at a decision'. Section 9(1) gives him, for that inquiry, all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 - so evidence is taken, witnesses may be summoned and examined on oath, and documents may be required.

That cuts both ways, and mostly in your favour if you have prepared. An objection asserting a relationship is a factual allegation, and in a proceeding with civil court powers it has to be made good. Family trees, the testimony of elders, and where relevant evidence of the custom, are exactly what such a proceeding is designed to receive.

If the objection is upheld and the marriage refused, section 8(2) gives either party thirty days to appeal to the district court, whose decision is final. If the objection was 'not reasonable and has not been made in good faith', section 9(2) allows the Marriage Officer to impose costs by way of compensation up to a thousand rupees and award them to you.

On the Hindu Marriage Act route there is no objection stage at all - registration under section 8 with the Delhi Order 2014 involves no notice and no publication. That does not make the condition go away, though. A void marriage is void whether or not anybody objected at the time, and it can be declared so by a decree of nullity later. Registration does not cure it.

The rest of the file, briefly

Assuming this condition is clear, everything else is the ordinary process.

If the 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. 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 both parties to appear in person with two witnesses who attended the ceremony and 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 ADM or DM; clause 10 offers an optional priority facility for Rs 10,000. The Revenue Department's Hindu Marriage Act page states Rs 100 on that route.

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 one of you has resided for thirty days, publication under section 6, thirty days for objections under section 7, solemnisation on or after the thirty-first day before three witnesses under section 11, certificate under section 13.

For age, the Revenue Department lists three proofs: matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate. Aadhaar is not among them. For residence: voter I-card, ration card, driving licence or passport. Self-attest everything and carry originals.

Nothing on this page is advice on your particular family. It sets out what the statutes say so that you can ask the right question of the right people, early.