Marriage Act

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PART 1 – THE VARIOUS FORMS OF MARRIAGE AND THE PERSONS AUTHORISED TO CELEBRATE MARRIAGES

4. Posting of notice of intended marriage
5. Form of notice of intended marriage
6. Notice not required when banns of marriage called
7. Declaration prior to marriage
8. Proof of impediment to marriage

9. Marriages not to contravene Cap. 45
10. Formalities of custom marriage
11. Number of witnesses required at celebration of marriage
12. Place of celebration of marriage
13. Formalities of marriage celebrated before a minister for celebrating marriages
14. Formalities of marriage celebrated before District Registrar

16. Parties unable to write to place their mark or cross on notice or declaration
17. Certified copy of register admissible in evidence
18. Offence for unauthorised person to celebrate marriage
19. Offence to make false declaration to contract marriage
20. Saving

Form A – Notice of intended marriage
Form B – Notice of intended marriage
Form C – Notice of marriage

PART 1 – THE VARIOUS FORMS OF MARRIAGE AND THE PERSONS AUTHORISED TO CELEBRATE MARRIAGES

Every marriage celebrated after the coming into operation of this Act shall be valid if celebrated –

(1) District Registrars shall be appointed by the Minister responsible for home affairs and their appointments shall be notified in the Gazette.

(2) The instrument of appointment of a District Registrar shall declare the district within which he may celebrate marriages.

(3) The jurisdiction of each District Registrar shall be limited to the District to which he has been appointed. The Minister responsible for home affairs may appoint an additional District Registrar to a district who shall exercise concurrently with the office holder the functions conferred upon him by this Act.

(1) The Minister responsible for religious affairs, upon receiving a requisition from the head of the denomination to which any minister of religion ordinarily officiating as such in Vanuatu belongs, may register such minister as a minister for celebrating marriages for the purposes of this Act. The Minister responsible for religious affairs may after consulting the head in Vanuatu of the denomination to which he belongs remove the name of any minister from the register. The Minister responsible for religious affairs shall publish in the Gazette the registration of every minister and the removal of the name of any minister from the register, which shall come into effect on the day of such publication.

(2) If any minister so registered dies or departs permanently from Vanuatu or is by the head of his denomination deprived of his office of minister, the Minister responsible for religious affairs, upon being satisfied of the facts, shall remove the name of such minister from the register.

(3) No marriage shall be rendered void by reason only of the same having been celebrated by a person not being a duly registered minister, if either of the parties to the marriage bona fide believes at the time that he was a duly registered minister.

(4) Whenever any person desires to be married solely by custom he shall before the marriage may be celebrated fulfil the pre-marital requirements of the custom under which he desires to be married. Any person wishing to contest the validity of such a marriage shall first prove that these requirements have not been fulfilled.

Subject to the provisions of section 6, before any marriage may be celebrated by a District Registrar or by a minister for celebrating marriages, a dated written notice of the intended marriage, giving the names and conditions of the parties thereto, their ages, family relationships and places of residence, in one of the official languages, and, if necessary, in a language understood by the parties thereto, shall be posted prominently in a place inside the church or outside the premises where the marriage is to be celebrated. Such notice shall be posted at least 3 weeks before the date of such intended marriage, and shall remain posted until the celebration of the marriage or until the expiration of 3 months from the date of the notice, whichever shall first happen. If, for any reason, the marriage be not celebrated within 3 months from the date on which the notice shall have been given as required by this section, fresh notice must be given in the manner hereinbefore set out. The notice of marriage used for religious marriage shall be attached by the minister for celebrating marriages to the copy of the marriage certificate which is sent to the District Registrar in accordance with the provisions of section 15.

The notice provided for in section 4 shall be as prescribed in Form A in Schedule 1 and shall be signed by both parties to the intended marriage.

Written notice of an intended marriage shall not be required when banns of marriage have been called on 3 successive Sundays or Sabbaths during public service of worship, in the regular place of worship of either or both of the parties to an intended marriage and provided that the marriage is performed in that place of worship not later than 3 months after such calling of banns. In such case the minister performing the marriage shall attach to a copy of the marriage certificate, a certificate as prescribed in Form B in Schedule 1, stating that the banns of marriage were duly called.

No marriage shall be celebrated by a minister for celebrating marriages or a District Registrar until each of the parties to the intended marriage shall have made and signed the declaration prescribed in Form D in the Schedule to the Civil Status Act, Cap. 61. The declarations shall be forwarded to the District Registrar together with the marriage certificate forwarded in accordance with the provisions of section 16.

Any person who claims that an impediment exists to any marriage, or that any marriage has not been publicly celebrated, or that any marriage is invalid shall himself bring proof of the facts alleged.

No marriage shall be celebrated in contravention of the provisions of the Control of Marriage Act, Cap. 45. Every marriage shall be celebrated publicly. A marriage celebrated in contravention of the provisions of this section shall be deemed to be void.

Every custom marriage shall be performed in a place and according to the form laid down by local custom.

The presence of at least two witnesses aged over 21 years shall be necessary for the due celebration of every marriage before a minister for celebrating marriages or a District Registrar.

Every marriage before a District Registrar or before a minister for celebrating marriages shall be celebrated in the premises, or in the church in which notice of the intended marriage was given, or in which the banns were called, as the case may be:

Provided that when one or other of the parties to an intended marriage is in extremis, or in any other case where the circumstances so require, a District Registrar or a minister for celebrating marriages may celebrate a marriage in a place other than those prescribed in this Act.

13. Formalities of marriage celebrated before a minister for celebrating marriages

Every marriage celebrated before a minister for celebrating marriages shall be performed according to the form practised by his denomination. In addition, to be valid it must include the expression by both parties thereto of their consent to the union thus contracted.

Every marriage before a District Registrar shall be celebrated, after he has satisfied himself that the formalities precedent to marriage prescribed by this Act have been complied with, in the form prescribed in Schedule 2.

(1) Immediately upon the celebration of any civil, religious or custom marriage, it shall be registered in conformity with the provisions of the Civil Status Act, Cap. 61.

(2) Where the marriage is performed by a minister for celebrating marriages, the person performing the ceremony of marriage and, in the case of a custom marriage, the bridegroom or the head of his family or the head of the bride's family or the chief of the village of either of the parties or an assessor, who was present at the marriage, shall thereafter forward to the District Registrar on the first occasion possible a notice as prescribed in Form C in Schedule 1.

(3) In all cases, the parties to the marriage shall be issued by the Registrar-General with a certified copy of the page of the Central Register relating to their marriage.

16. Parties unable to write to place their mark or cross on notice or declaration

If either of the parties to an intended marriage is unable to write, it shall be sufficient if he or she place a mark or cross to the notice required under section 4 and the declaration required under section 7; the notice and declaration shall be witnessed by the District Registrar, the minister for celebrating marriages, or a person authorised under section 15 to notify the Registrar of the celebration of a custom marriage, as the case may be, in the style prescribed at the foot of Form A in Schedule 1.

Any completed page in the Central Register, or any copy thereof certified as a true copy by a District Registrar of Civil Status or by the Registrar-General, shall be admissible in any court as sufficient evidence of the marriage to which it relates. Any person who falsifies such a copy by means of addition, alteration or omission shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding VT 50,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Any person who, not being duly authorised thereto by the provisions of this Act, celebrates any marriage shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 50,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months. In such a case, the marriage shall be void, except as provided in section 3(3).

Any person who wilfully makes a false declaration in order to contract a marriage which would otherwise have been illegal shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 50,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to invalidate any marriage, however performed, prior to the coming into operation of this Act.

The Minister responsible for home affairs may by Order prescribe fees payable on the celebration of marriage.

Notice is hereby given that a marriage is intended to be celebrated within 3 months of the date hereof between the undersigned.

The marriage will take place at ............................................................................................................

those our hands this ..................... day of .............................. 20................

............................................................................... (section 16)
Certificate of the District Registrar or

(To be completed only if either of the parties to the intended marriage is unable to write.)

Signed by the said ............................ at .......................................................
on the ...................day of ............................ 20.................

This notice was interpreted to him/her in the ........................................................ language by ..............................................

He/She seemed to understand the nature and purpose thereof and made his/her mark thereto in my presence.

To: The District Registrar at ..........................................................................

I hereby declare that the Banns of Marriage between .............................................and ...................................................... have been called on 3 successive Sabbaths during public service of worship, the dates being

(1) ................................ (2) ................................... and (3) ................................

Date ........................ ...........................Signature, minister for celebrating marriages

	1. Date and Place of Marriage and by whom performed
HUSBAND	2. Name in Full, Occupation, Place of Residence
	3. Date and Place of Birth
	4. Status (Bachelor, Widower, Divorced)
	5. Parentage
WIFE	6. Name in Full, Occupation, Place of Residence
	7. Date and Place of Birth
	8. Status (Spinster, Widow, Divorced)
	9. Parentage
WITNESSES	Name in Full, Occupation, Place of Residence Date and Place of Birth
WITNESSES	11. Name in Full, Occupation, Place of Residence Date and Place of Birth
REMARKS	12. Time, Day, Month and Year of Declaration
REMARKS	13. Other Remarks/Observations

................................ Signature or thumbprint of Witness	..................................... Signature of minister for celebrating marriages (if appropriate)	FOR USE OF REGISTRAR- GENERAL
		______________________
.................................. Signature or thumbprint of Witness SEAL	..................................... Date	(a) Seal and date of Authentication
	..................................... Signature of Registrar or Sub-Registrar	(b) Number in Central Register
	..................................... Full name of Registrar or Sub-Registrar
	..................................... Office or Occupation
	...................................... Date

"Do you ........................................................................... (full name) consent to take ..................................................................... (full name of other party) as your wife (or husband)?"

2. If both parties answer in the affirmative, the District Registrar shall in a manner understood by them inform the parties that they are for all purposes married and that the marriage cannot be dissolved while they are both living except by a valid judgment of divorce.

3. The District Registrar shall then address the parties together in the following words –

"You owe to one another mutual fidelity, support and assistance. The husband is the head of the family, but he shall exercise this function in its common interest, the wife combining with him to ensure its orderly conduct and in particular to assist in the proper upbringing of the children. The wife may fulfil the functions of the husband as head of the family if for any reason the husband is unable to do so. The husband shall be primarily responsible for the material welfare of the family and shall furnish the necessities of life according to his ability. The choice of the family home shall rest with the husband and the wife shall live with him and the husband shall be bound to allow her to do so."

Name	Condition	Occupation Rank or Profession	Age	Place of Residence	Consent, if any, and by whom given
1. 2.

Vanuatu Consolidated Legislation - 2006

Marriage Act