CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE AT UNLICENSED PLACE OF WORSHIP: LEGAL IMPLICATION (2)

This is a follow-up on my post of 19th June, 2015. See that post for a recap. In that post, I left my readers with the question as to whether or not the deserted wife in our scenario could succeed in her application to the court of law for restitution of her conjugal rights to bring her husband back home from the 'grip' of the cash madam.I shall address this subsequently.

THE LEGAL POSITION
The order of restitution of marriage being sought by the deserted wife in the scenario is peculiar to marriages conducted under the Nigerian Marriage Act which shall be subsequently referred to as the Act in this post. Thus, if a marriage is conducted outside the Act, the provisions of the Act and those of the Nigerian Matrimonial Causes Act shall not apply to it. It is relevant, here, to note that the Nigerian Matrimonial Causes Act is another enactment meant to compliment the Marriage Act as it seeks to regulate matrimonial proceedings in court.

Section 6 of the Marriage Act provides that a place of worship shall be licensed for a valid marriage to be conducted there under the Act. In the scenario,  the couple celebrated their marriage in a church not licensed for the purpose of conducting marriages under the Act. No spouse of a purported marriage celebrated at an unlicensed place of worship, as in our scenario, can benefit from any of the reliefs provided for in the Act or the Matrimonial Causes Act.

Therefore, in our scenario the deserted wife could not succeed in her application for restitution of her conjugal rights for the above-stated reason. The best that the couple received on their wedding day in that scenario was mere blessings of marriage as the officiating minister lacked the legal capacity to conduct the marriage because his church was not licensed by the appropriate authority( that is,the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs). Legally speaking, the deserted wife and her purported husband were not married as husband and wife under the Act. In effect, the deserted wife could not have her husband back legally except through other means in the circumstances.

Thank you for reading.

Watch out for my next post!