Marriage certificate registration process for Catholics in Mumbai

Well, if you are reading this post, it means that you are looking online for a rather daunting, but compulsory , govt procedure that each newly married couple has to undergo, despite its dread, to have their marriages recognized for any official documented process. Please note that this blog covers this process for people who follow the catholic religion only. However, if by any chance you follow a different faith apart from the catholic, jewish or Parsi faiths (an exclusion which escaped me, but not the minute attention seeking eye of my better half), do not despair. I am attaching the rules and regulations snap shot displayed at the local BMC office, where according to the new law, you can get your marriages registered.

So, if you are a catholic, read ahead. 

You have two options:

1. Follow the regular procedure of getting two witnesses and registering your marriage with the registrar. The problem with this method is that both you, and your spouse need to be present at the registrar. This,  excluding a trip to get a date with the registrar. Moreover, you need two witnesses for this procedure, and so, will have to co-ordinate an off-day with them or in a worst case, plead them to attend the marriage registrars office.

2. Get the marriage certificate from the church attested (for which I will guide you in this blog). The advantage with this method is that only one of you (I'm guessing it will mostly be the husband's...hehehe) need to be present. Also, it requires no prior date reservations. Everything is done in a single day. 

I opted for the second method as it was easier and hassle-free (or so I thought). I tried to find a lot of help online as any good netizen would do, but got very little. Although, I must admit that the Snehalaya website (http://snehalaya.in/civil-law.htm) mentions it in a much better manner. Also, it is mentioned in a very good manner in the blog by Moses Gomes (http://cybi.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/information-on-court-marriages-mumbai/). Thanks for taking the time to jot this down guys!

Having done the preliminary research, I decided to deep dive into this methodology. I had my cousin with me to provide me moral support all along the way :D. Ok, so no more wasting time. Here goes:

What you will need:

1. An id proof (passports work great) of both the partners.

2. A photocopy of each of the proof.

3. The notarized marriage certificate (will get to this later)

4. A pen :)

5. Patience and

6. A day off :)

Now Snehalaya's website mentions that the Marriage certificate obtained from the church has to be notarized first, but on Speaking to the marriage registrar and the father in the bishops house, I got to know that the notary has to be done after the stamping from the archbishops house. I followed the Snehalaya method and the father at the archbishops house said that it does not matter. But just to avoid inconvenience, you can notarize the document from the Bombay high court (or any other suitable place you know) on the day you are visiting the archbishops house, so that the date is same. But in my experience it does not matter much, as long as the certificate is notarized. I had a gap of a week between the notarization and the archbishops house stamping. 

So, to summarize the steps:

•  Obtain the marriage certificate from your respective church.
•  Get it notarized from the notary (preferably on the same day as you intend to go to get the procedure done, but not necessary)
• Visit the archbishops house at Colaba, Woodhouse, to get the stamping done (location available on Google maps). The timings as of today are:

            Morning: 9:00am - 1:00pm

            Evening: 3:00pm - 5:00pm

           A word of caution: Please reach the archbishops house well before 1:00 or 5:00 so that the father does not go on   a break. I just made it before 1:00, but the father had already left, so I had to wait till 3:00 to get the stamping done. And it was a long wait:). Note that the Mantralaya section can be done only in afternoon, so choose your time accordingly

•  After the stamping, go to the home department building opposite Mantralaya. 

          The timings are: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

          They will ask for an id proof (original) before letting you in. So, the passport (or any other Photograph  id proof that you are carrying) will be handy. You have to make an entry in a register. Place your  baggage (if any) in an x-ray machine, get yourself searched and then continue into the building. Here,  you need to go to the home department attestation center on the 9th floor and get the document attested. You will face a long line here, so it makes sense to allocate sufficient time for this process in your schedule. It took me almost an hour for my turn. In case people in the queue try to confuse you, note that you don't need any photocopies of any document since the original itself is verified.

Here, there are two windows placed side-by-side:

1. The first will just verify your original id proof against your name and stamp the document. You need to enter the name of the notary officer in the blank space and move to the window ahead. The person on this first window will guide you.
2. Here, you need to again show your id proof to the presiding officer, who will verify it again and sign the marriage certificate on the stamp from the previous window. I almost missed this window and my cousin pointed it out to me :).

         So now, in affect you will have the notary at the back of the marriage certificate, along with 3 stamps   by the archbishop house and another stamp by this verification dept. Whew! thats too many stamps for          such a small certificate. So, by now, its almost full.

• Before moving further, make sure you have the following:

1. The original and Photocopies of the id proofs of both the partners (preferably the passport, as it has the  biological fathers name on it, which will be verified against the fathers name on the marriage certificate).
2. A photocopy of the recently stamped marriage certificate with the backside showing all the stamps collected till now.

• Finally, go to the Mantralaya, i.e. the building opposite to where you are. Right now, the building is being renovated, so you will need to go to the back of the building from another entrance. But for this, you require a pass. This pass is available just to the left of the main gate, which is again given on display of a photo id. So, by now, you know how important the id proof is. Take the gate pass and continue to the left, take a right and you will see another gate. As an indication, there is a post office on the ground floor, just so you know that you have entered the correct gate. Again, show your Id proof, dump your bag in the x-ray machine and move on. Same again in the first building to your left that you will enter. Take a left and follow the path to the lift. Go to the 6th floor. Here you  will meet the marriage registrar, Mr. Lopez, currently in room 631. He will verify the documents against the originals, take the photocopies of the id proofs and the photocopy of the recently stamped marriage certificate that you just took in the previous step. He will then stamp the marriage certificate, and you are done!

Thats it...you have made your marriage certificate good for all govt purposes and also if you need it to go abroad. Phew! quite a task huh..

When doing my research, I got Mr. Lopez's number from the govt website, who explained the entire process to us, step-by-step. So, a big thank you to him for being such a great help! 

I hope I was able to help you in getting clarification to register your marriage. All the best!