Neither an Aadhaar card nor an unverified transfer certificate can carry a marriage registration on its own, the Allahabad High Court has held, laying down statewide checks against child marriages in Uttar Pradesh.
Prayagraj: Directions meant to stop marriage registration without verified proof of age were issued statewide by the Allahabad High Court on October 9, 2026. The online system can no longer issue marriage certificates on Aadhaar age records alone, and suspected child marriages must be referred to the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer and the District Magistrate [Deepak Pal v. State of U.P. and 3 Others].
The order, in a criminal appeal, was passed by Justice Tej Pratap Tiwari. Advocates Akash Singh, Sanjay Singh and Shivam Singh appeared for the appellant, and the Government Advocate appeared for the State.
Registration as a safeguard
Compulsory registration of marriages, the Court said, is a guard against child marriage and not merely a record-keeping exercise. It described the purpose this way:
It is a statutory safeguard against the consequences of an unrecorded or unverifiable matrimonial relationship.
On the documents themselves, the Court held that an Aadhaar card does not by itself make the date of birth recorded in it conclusive or authoritative proof of age. A transfer certificate, it added, is not among the documents listed in Section 94(2)(i) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. With no verified proof of age before the registering authority, the registration could not be sustained. The Court relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Seema v. Ashwani Kumar on the importance of compulsory registration in preventing child marriage.
What the State must now do
Until the Uttar Pradesh Marriage Registration Rules, 2017 are amended, the Court directed that:
No marriage shall be registered where either party has not completed the statutory age on the date of the application
An application in which the material shows, or raises reasonable doubt about, underage status must go to the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer and the District Magistrate and must not be processed routinely. The State is to prescribe a clear hierarchy of age records, with the birth certificate and matriculation record considered first, and applications with conflicting records are to be flagged, not accepted automatically. The Marriage Registration Officer must verify records with the issuing authorities and record brief reasons for the date relied upon, while the online system must record the source used for each party’s date of birth.
The Principal Secretary, Stamp and Registration Department, must ensure that a Standard Operating Procedure covers ordinary cases, conflicting records, doubtful or unavailable documents and escalation. As far as technically feasible, the portal must flag discrepancies and block automatic certificate generation while verification is incomplete. The Inspector General of Registration is to run a statewide sensitisation programme for registration officers.
Oversight falls to the judiciary as well. District Legal Services Authority secretaries must inspect registration offices every two months and report to the District Judge, who forwards the reports to the Registrar General, and District Judges must convene meetings with the District Magistrate, registration officials and Child Marriage Prohibition Officers. The matter is listed for compliance on November 27, 2026.
The registrar’s affidavit
The appeal had led the Court to ask how the marriage came to be registered. Under an earlier order, the Assistant Inspector General (Registration), Amitabh Kumar, appeared in person and filed a compliance affidavit. He stated that the marriage had been registered on the basis of a transfer certificate and an Aadhaar card, without the date of birth being verified as the Inspector General’s guidelines require. He tendered an unconditional apology on affidavit and undertook to verify dates of birth before registering marriages in future.
Why the order matters
Age verification now moves to the point of registration, where an online certificate could earlier be generated from Aadhaar data, and periodic judicial oversight is added through the District Legal Services Authorities. The compliance reports will show how the State puts the safeguards into practice.
Case Title: Deepak Pal v. State of U.P. and 3 Others [Criminal Appeal No. 12251 of 2025]
Bench: Justice Tej Pratap Tiwari, Allahabad High Court
Date of Order: October 9, 2026
Appearances: Advocates Akash Singh, Sanjay Singh and Shivam Singh for the appellant; Government Advocate for the State.
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