The Congress government in Karnataka has decided to amend the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Registration (Karnataka) (Amendment) Rules, 2024 and facilitate online registration of marriages in the state. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting on February 1. 

The Cabinet led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gave its consent for the amendment of the law in this regard, as stated by Law Minister HK Patil after the meeting. Action will be taken as per the announcement of Siddaramaiah made in this regard during the budget presentation last year. 

Siddaramaiah had made an announcement in July, 2023. “You need not visit the sub-registrar’s office to get the registration of your marriage done. A provision for online registration of marriages will be made,” he had said. He had also proposed to enable couples to submit applications to register their marriages in gram panchayats.

The government has also enabled registration of marriages through the Kaveri 2.0 software application. The marriages can also be registered at the Bapu Seva centres and Grama One centres.

“Until now, the marriage registrations were done only at sub-registrar' offices. To bring flexibility in the process the provision of online submission of applications will be provided,” Siddaramaiah had announced.

However, Hindu organisations had objected to the proposal of the Congress government. Sri Ram Sena founder Pramod Muthalik alleged that the number of love-jihad cases will rise following the government’s decision. Suryanarayan, co-convenor of All India Bajrang Dal, said the government should not implement this proposal and continue the earlier method of marriage registration.