Even as the government continues with its efforts to make Aadhaar mandatory for various schemes, the Law Commission has now recommended that marriage records should be compulsorily linked to the 12-digit Unique Identification Number.

According to a report in Business Today, the recommendation has been made keeping in mind the growing cases of marriage-related crimes and to curb the menaces of child marriage, bigamy and gender-based violence.

The recommendation was made in the Dr Justice BS Chauhan-headed Law Commission's report titled ‘Compulsory registration of marriages’, which was submitted on July 4.

Explaining why it was important to link the marriage registration to Aadhaar, the Commission's report stated: “In the absence of compulsory registration, women are duped into marrying without performance of the conditions of a valid marriage. This deprives women of societal recognition and legal security. Such fraudulent marriages are especially on rise among non-resident Indians. Compulsory registration can serve as a means to ensure that conditions of a valid marriage have been performed."

Registration of marriage is included in various personal laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, the Special Marriages Act 1954, the Parsi Marriages and Divorce Act 1936 and the Indian Christian Marriages Act 1872.

The Law Commission report, however, states: "There is no provision that provides for simply keeping a record of all marriages and is available to any and every individual in the country regardless of religion, region or customs."

It added that though the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill 1969 was introduced to include the registration of marriages, its amendments only apply to the Christian community and it does not serve as a national legislation.