2.11 Registration of Marriage

Where: the local level (ward office/municipality) — for the social-ceremony marriage, registration follows the ceremony on the parties' application with the prescribed evidence (the ceremony's proof, witnesses, identity documents); What registration does: the marriage certificate — the gateway document for citizenship, passport, property succession, maintenance and divorce proceedings; registration is the proof- system, not (for ceremony-marriages) the constitutive act; Is the unregistered marriage void? No — the Code does not void the unregistered ceremony-marriage (recognition of social reality); but the unregistered wife faces the evidentiary struggle — proving the marriage in maintenance and property cases by secondary evidence (photos, witnesses, community proof). The critical paragraph: the law's documentation gap falls hardest on the vulnerable spouse; Foreign marriages: Nepalis marrying abroad register at the Nepali diplomatic mission or later in Nepal; foreigners marrying in Nepal follow the documentation-and-no-objection practice (Unit 3's court-marriage route often used); Late registration: permitted on application with proof — the practice's regularization valve. Exam Focus Long questions: (i) Concept of marriage — sacrament to contract, with definitions; (ii) Conditions of valid marriage + void vs. voidable (the table is the answer's spine); (iii) Offences relating to marriage — child marriage's arranger-liability, bigamy, incest, jari's abolition, the 2021 adultery ruling; (iv) Surname acquisition/change and registration's evidentiary role. Short questions: void vs. voidable distinction; daijo/pewa; the annulment windows; remarriage…