New Delhi: Where do we register our marriages? This was former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh's poser to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday.

Singh met Chidambaram and drew his attention to the fact that that the Sikh Marriage Act was annulled in 1955 and merged with Hindu Marriage Act.

He submitted a representation and demanded a separate Act to give legal sanctity to the marriages under Sikh religion.

 
The home minister has assured that the Centre will look into the issue sympathetically, Singh said.

"I have apprised the home minister about the absence of any law for solemnising Sikh marriages and the necessity of enacting a law in this effect. He assured me to look into the demand positively," Singh said.

He said the government of India, under the aegis of then Viceroy of India, enacted the Anand Marriage Act for the Sikhs in 1909.

 
The cause of this was that in 1902, the Chief Khalsa Diwan was formed and in 1906 this was followed by the formation of the Muslim League and in 1907 the Hindu Maha Sabha was constituted, he said.

As a consequence, marriages among Sikhs were held under this Act in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib, and this practice continued till 1995 when in Independent India, the Sikh Marriage Act was replaced and included in the Hindu Marriage Act in which four communities were clubbed together -- Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhist and Jain, Singh said.

 "Following this, the Sikhs have been demanding for a separate Anand Marriage Act as was prevalent in 1909 for registering the Sikh marriage separately," he said.