SMA · 4
Conditions relating to solemnisation of special marriages
No living spouse, capacity to consent, male twenty-one and female eighteen, not within degrees of prohibited relationship.
Library
Family & Succession
Special Marriage Act, 1954
1954 · Ministry of Law and Justice · 51 sections
Provides a civil form of marriage for any two persons regardless of religion, its registration, and matrimonial reliefs; succession to the property of persons married under it is governed by the Indian Succession Act.
Most-invoked sections
SMA · 5
Notice of intended marriage
Written notice to the Marriage Officer of the district where at least one party has resided for thirty days; the notice is published for thirty days (s. 6) for objections.
SMA · 15
Registration of marriages celebrated in other forms
A marriage celebrated under any other form may be registered under the Act if the conditions are met, whereupon the Act's consequences follow (s. 18).
SMA · 27
Divorce
Grounds mirror the HMA — adultery, desertion, imprisonment for seven years, cruelty, unsoundness of mind, venereal disease, presumed death — plus non-resumption after decree and wife-specific grounds.
SMA · 28
Divorce by mutual consent
Joint petition after one year's separation; motion after six months and not later than eighteen months.
The text shown is a working summary used inside Nyaya for grounding and UI preview. For verbatim reproduction, refer to the bare Act published on indiacode.nic.in.