Can I get married without a marriage license in Bahawalpur, Pakistan

 Can I get married without a marriage license in Bahawalpur

What is a marriage license?

First of all, what is a marriage license?

It is one of the formal requisites of marriage. It is a legal requirement for getting validly married in the Philippines.

A marriage license represents the authority to enter a contract of marriage. This is granted to the couple by the State only after the proper government official has inquired into their capacity.

You are generally not allowed to get married in the Philippines unless you have obtained a marriage license.

Where is a marriage license obtained?

A marriage license is applied for and obtained from the local civil registrar of the city or municipality where one of the prospective spouses’ lives.

Both the man and the woman have to submit certain documents before they can be issued a marriage license. These include the sworn application for the marriage license, their birth certificates, and a certification from their embassy if one of them is a foreign citizen.

It takes time for a marriage license to be obtained because the law requires that an application for one should be posted publicly for ten days before the license is issued.

Do you always need a marriage license?

You usually need a marriage license to get married, but not always.

A marriage license is not required in a few situations. These include a marriage when one of the parties is at the point of death. Or a marriage where the couple has, for at least five years, actually lived together as husband and wife without any legal obstacle to their marrying each other.

But, in most other situations, a marriage license is indispensable. Its absence is fatal to the marriage.

What if you were required to get a marriage license, but you were married without one?

What if you were married without a marriage license?

For example, what if you had falsely claimed that you and your intended husband had already lived together for five years and were thus exempted from the marriage license requirement?

What is the status of that marriage?

The absence of a marriage license makes that marriage null and void from the beginning.

That marriage was never valid in the first place. This means that the children born of this null and void marriage are illegitimate. The marriage’s community property will be subject to dissolution and distribution between the spouses.

If your marriage is null and void for lack of a marriage license, was never valid, can you therefore marry someone else straight away?

No. Even if you were married without a marriage license, even if the marriage is null and void as a result, you don’t get to just decide that your marriage doesn’t exist and that you can thus marry again without further ado.

You first need to file a case in court. Only the court has the power to declare your marriage void for purposes of remarriage.

If you are in a null and void marriage, the law requires that you first get a court declaration of nullity before you can marry someone else.

If you don’t — If, before first getting this court declaration, you instead get married a second time, then the second marriage will also be null and void.

Not only that, by getting married before a court ruled your previous marriage void, you can be prosecuted for bigamy under Philippine law.

What should you do if you were married without a marriage license and you want to remarry?

If you want to remarry, then you have to file a court case for declaration of nullity of marriage with the Family Court.

This is a court trial, so you’ll need a lawyer to prepare your case, to prepare the witnesses, and present evidence to the court. Documents have to be prepared and proof has to be submitted.

You yourself should ideally testify in court, along with other witnesses needed to prove that 1) a marriage license was required in your case; and 2) no such marriage license was issued to the couple.

Proving these requires digging into the facts. You have to put persons on the witness stand who are in a position to know these facts, such as the civil registrar and other witnesses who can testify to the documents and to the facts of the wedding.

If these are proven with enough evidence then the court can rule for the dissolution of the marriage.

Only after that, and after the court’s judgment is recorded at the civil registry, should you remarry.