Section 27 Marriage Act

Section 27 of the Marriage Act 1914 is about Marriage in a registrar’s office. It provides as follows:

After the issue of a certificate under section 11, or of a license under section 13 of this Act, the parties may, if they think fit, contract a marriage before a registrar, in the presence of two witnesses in his office, with open doors, between the hours of ten o’clock in the forenoon and four o’clock in the afternoon, and in the following manner‐

Form to be observed
The registrar, after production to him of the certificate or license, shall, either directly
or through an interpreter, address the parties thus‐

“Do I understand that you, A.B., and you, C.D., come here
for the purpose of becoming man and wife?

If the parties answer in the affirmative, he shall proceed thus‐ ‘‐../

“Know ye that, by the public taking of each other as man and wife in my pres‐ence and in the presence of the persons now here, and by the subsequent attestation thereof by signing your names to that effect, you become legally married to each other, although no other rite of a civil or religious nature shall take place, and that this marriage cannot be dissolved during your lifetime, except by a valid judgment of divorce; and if either of you before the death of the other shall contract another marriage while this remain undissolved you will be thereby guilty of bigamy, and liable to punishment for that offence.”

Each of the parties shall then say to the other “I call upon all persons here present to witness that I, A.B. do take thee, C.D. to be my lawful wife (or husband)”.

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