This is the third time in 20 months that the Supreme Court has found it necessary to insist that all marriages be registered. State governments had dillydallied over the instruction since February 2006, very few of them even bothering to file the compliance — or non-compliance — report within three months as required. That some states had proceeded a few shy steps by making registration of marriages compulsory for Hindus only exposes the ineradicable fear all Indian politicians seem to have of annoying the minority communities. They are unable to think out of the groove of vote-bank numbers; women cheated of their rights simply do not appear on their horizon. In July this year, the court made clear that registration was meant for all religions. It is absurd that the court should have mentioned this. Apart from the fact that a simple point of law cannot be made without evoking — and resisting — the politics with which everything is always enveloped, there is also the far more pressing reality of the increase in the number of inter-community and inter-caste marriages. A major benefit of registration, apart from gender justice, would be protection of both partners from unfair religious or social pressure.

Typically, West Bengal does not figure in the list of states that have done something about making registration compulsory. It has claimed, however, that it has amended the Special Marriages Rules, the Hindu Marriage Act and the Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Rules. That is, again typically, clever, but obviously not what the Supreme Court wants. West Bengal, just like everyone else, has been given three months to implement registration and frame rules for it in such a way as to make clear the consequences of not registering a marriage. Citizens can only wait and see.