Govt Finances Marriage Legalization

Jakarta | badilag.net/english

Bekasi regency’s population and civil registration agency plans to register couples of unofficial marriage, locally known as nikah sirri, in 23 districts.

Head of the agency, H. Aspuri, told Antara news agency, that the office has ordered the districts to collect information of unofficial marriage couples.

“The data collection of unregistered marriage couples will be conducted through “Itsbat (Nikah)/Marriage Legalization” mechanism at Bekasi Regency (Cikarang) Religious Court. The data (of the court) will later be used as a marriage certificate,” he said.

“The funding for this Itsbat nikah is from the local state budget (APBD) that we propose in 2010. But the exact number of the budget for this purpose is still waiting the data we’re completing now. We’ll prioritize the budget for the poor,” he added.

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This activity, Aspuri said, is in line with the Law No. 23/2006 on Population Administration which stipulates that every Indonesian child must have a birth certificate. “It would be difficult for the children to obtain legal birth certificates if their parents’ marriages were not registered. Legal marriage certificates are the main requirement to get legal birth certificates,” he said on Friday (28/5).

Nikah sirri is usually held in front of a Muslim cleric, not recognized by Religious Affairs Ministry but valid within Islamic law provided witnesses are present.

The government has said that unregistered marriages were an administrative violation since under existing regulations, marriages should be registered before a Religious Court.

Source: www.antaranews.com, www.thejakartapost.com