Well im one of the countless techies working in the city of Bangalore hailing from Kerala. I recently went to get my marriage registered in Bangalore having got married in my hometown in kerala. So I did a quick check on google and talked to colleagues who’d registered their marriages here and got my list of documents required. Spend a week collecting all the documents required. Went to the koramangala registrar office in BDA complex. The officer was characteristically late coming in at 11:00 am. I went belligerently to his desk with my stack of documents. This is when i was in shock when he tells me i need to provide a driving license, voters id or ration card for BOTH my wife and myself which shows the same address !!! I was dumb-founded since other people had got it done by showing their rental agreements in addition to bank statements which showed a common address.

Being a ‘migrant laborer’ i don’t have my own house nor a ration card or voters id in this state. Well he promptly told me it wasn’t going to happen. So now i have very few options left like,

1. Getting a duplicate drivers license in karnataka just to show my new address (that i believe would not be strictly legal) so no hope on that front.
2. I need to get myself a voters id but they are not issuing it anytime till next year.
3. I could go and get myself a ration card but i don’t know where they issue it. Plus i have to take a crash course in kannada to fill up the form or get some touts to do it for me and I don’t think my boss would be too happy if i burdened him with another leave request period for about 5 days just to get this done.

As a citizen the most easiest document that i ever got from India,inc was my PAN card and i guess you know why. To issue that no one give a F*** where you live, whether you are employed what age you are as long as you are above 16 or something no address proof, no id proof …… nothing……

What is it to do with the govt as to where me and my wife actually ‘live’ when it comes to issuing a marriage certificate? For all sensible logic I could get a marriage certificate showing i live in Bangalore and the next day migrate to Mumbai or Cochin…. !!!! I mean would that invalidate the marriage certificate they issues ?????

What would be so wrong if they just required and Id proof to show you are you AND you are of eligible age and the blooty get the deal over with and issue a certificate on basis of other allied docs like your marriage photograph, invitation letters, the letter from the church/ temple/ samaj stating you got married as per religious rites. period.

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