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25/04/2025
Laws of Bangladesh

1The Special Marriage Act, 1872

( ACT NO. III OF 1872 )

Conditions upon which marriages under Act may be celebrated
2. Marriages may be celebrated under this Act between persons neither of whom professes the Christian or the Jewish, or the Hindu or the Muslim or the Parsi or the Buddhist, or the Sikh or the Jaina religion, or between persons each of whom professes one or other of the following religions, that is to say, the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jaina religion upon the following conditions:–
 
 
 
 
(1) neither party must, at the time of the marriage, have a husband or wife living:
 
 
 
 
(2) the man must have completed his age of eighteen years, and the woman her age of fourteen years, according to the Gregorian calendar:
 
 
 
 
(3) each party must, if he or she has not completed the age of twenty-one years, have obtained the consent of his or her father or guardian to the marriage:
 
 
(4) the parties must not be related to each other in any degree of consanguinity or affinity which would, according to any law to which either of them is subject, render a marriage between them illegal.
 
 
 
 
1st Proviso- No such law or custom, other than one relating to consanguinity or affinity, shall prevent them from marrying.
 
 
 
 
2nd Proviso- No law or custom as to consanguinity shall prevent them from marrying, unless a relationship can be traced between the parties through some common ancestor, who stands to each of them in a nearer relationship than that of great-great-grand-father or great-great-grand-mother, or unless one of the parties is the lineal ancestor, or the brother or sister of some lineal ancestor, of the other.

  • 1
    Throughout this Act, except otherwise provided, the words "Government", "Muslim" and "Penal Code" were substituted, for the words "Provincial Government", "Muhammadan" and "Pakistan Penal Code" respectively by section 3 and 2nd Schedule of the Bangladesh Laws (Revision And Declaration) Act, 1973 (Act No. VIII of 1973).
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