APPENDIX A. THE PARSI CHATTELS REAL ACT. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT, FORT WILLIAM, THE 15TH MAY 1837. THE following Act passed by the Right Honourable the Governor-General of India in Council, on the 15th May 1837, is hereby promulgated for general information: ACT No. IX of 1837. I. It is hereby enacted, that from the 1st day of June 1837, all immovable property situate within the jurisdiction of any of the courts established by His Majesty's Charter shall, as far as regards the transmission of such property on the death and intestacy of any Parsi having a beneficial interest in the same, or by the last will of any such Parsi, be taken to be and to have been of the nature of chattels real and not of freehold. II. Provided always, that in any suit at law or in equity which shall be brought for the recovery of such immovable property as is aforesaid, no advantage shall be taken of any defect of title arising out of the transmission of such property upon the death and intestacy of any Parsi having a beneficial interest in the same or by the last will of any such Parsi if such transmission took place before the said 1st day of June 1837, and if such transmission were either according to the rules which regulate the transmission of freehold property or else took place with the acquiescence of all persons to whom any interest in that property would, according to the rules which regulate the transmission of chattels real, have accrued upon the death of such Parsi. W. H. MACNAGHTEN, Secretary to the Government of India. APPENDIX B. THE PARSI MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE ACT 1865. ACT No. XV. of 1865. THE following Act of the Governor-General of India in Council received the assent of His Excellency the Governor-General on the 7th April 1865, and is hereby promulgated for general information:— An Act to define and amend the law relating to Marriage and Divorce among the Parsis. Preamble. Whereas the Parsi community has represented the necessity of defining and amending the law relating to marriage and divorce among Parsis, and whereas it is expedient that such law should be made conformable to the customs of the said community, it is enacted as follows: Short title. Interpretation clause. Number. "Priest." I. PRELIMINARY. I. This Act may be cited as "The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act 1865." II. In this Act, unless there be something repugnant in the subject or context Words in the singular number include the plural, and words in the plural number include the singular. "Priest" means a Parsi priest, and includes Dastur and Mobed. Marriage" means a marriage between Parsis whether con- "Section." “Husband and wife.” this Act; and "husband" and "wife" respectively mean a Parsi husband and a Parsi wife. "Section" means a section of this Act. "Chief Justice" includes senior judge. "Court" means a court constituted under this Act. "Chief Justice." "Court." "British India" means the territories which are or shall be vested in Her Majesty or her successors by "British India." the Statute 21 and 22 Vic., cap. 106, entitled "An Act for the better Government of India." "Local Government." And, in any part of British India in which this Act operates, "Local Government" means the person authorised to administer Executive Government in such part of India, or the Chief Executive Officer of such part when it is under the immediate administration of the GovernorGeneral of India in Council, and when such officer shall be authorised to exercise the powers vested by this Act in a local "High Court." government; and "High Court" means the highest civil court of appeal in such part. riages. II. OF MARRIAGES BETWEEN PARSIS. III. No marriage contracted after the commencement of this Act shall be valid, if the contracting parties are Requisites to validity of Parsi mar- related to each other in any of the degrees of consanguinity or affinity prohibited among Parsis, and set forth in a table which the Governor-General of India in Council shall, after due inquiry, publish in the Gazette of India, and unless such marriage shall be solemnised according to the Parsi form or ceremony called "Ashirwad " by a Parsi priest in the presence of two Parsi witnesses independently of such officiating priest; and unless, in the case of any Parsi who shall 1 Memo. by the Secretary to the Parsi Law Association.-The table of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity within which marriage is prohibited among the Parsis is published in the Gazette of India of 9th September 1865, and is reprinted in this book at the end of this Act. not have completed the age of twenty-one years, the consent of his or her father or guardian shall have been previously given to such marriage. IV. No Parsi shall, after the commencement of this Act, contract any marriage in the lifetime of his or her wife or husband, except after his or her Re-marriage save after divorce unlaw ful during lifetime of first wife or hus band. lawful divorce from such wife or husband by sentence of a Court as hereinafter provided; and every marriage contracted contrary to the provisions of this section shall be void. Punishment of V. Every Parsi who shall, after the commencement of this Act and during the lifetime of his or her wife bigamy. or husband, contract any marriage without having been lawfully divorced from such a wife or husband, shall be subject to the penalties provided in sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code for the offence of marrying again during the lifetime of a husband or wife.1 The following are the sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code herein referred to: 494. Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in Marrying again dur- which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place ing the lifetime of hus- during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. band or wife. Exception. This section does not extend to any person whose marriage with such husband or wife has been declared void by a court of competent jurisdiction, nor to any person who contracts a marriage during the life of a former husband or wife, if such husband or wife, at the time of the subsequent marriage, shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years, and shall not have been heard of by such person as being alive within that time, provided the person contracting such subsequent marriage shall, before such marriage takes place, inform the person with whom such marriage is contracted of the real state of facts so far as the same are within his or her knowledge. Same offence with concealment of the former marriage from the 495. Whoever commits the offence defined in the last preceding section, having concealed from the person with whom the subsequent marriage is contracted the fact of the former marriage, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. person with whom sub sequent marriage contracted. is VI. Every marriage contracted after the commencement of this Act shall, immediately on the solemnisation Certificate and registry of mar- thereof, be certified by the officiating priest in riages. the form contained in the Schedule to this Act. The certificate shall be signed by the said priest, the contracting parties, or their fathers or guardians when they shall not have completed the age of twenty-one years, and two witnesses present at the marriage; and the said priest shall thereupon send such certificate, together with a fee of Rs.2 to be paid by the husband, to the registrar of the place at which such marriage is solemnised. The registrar, on receipt of the certificate and fee, shall enter the certificate in a register to be kept by him for that purpose, and shall be entitled to retain the fee. registrar. VII. For the purposes of this Act a registrar shall be apAppointment of pointed, who may be the registrar appointed under Act XVI. of 1864 (to provide for the Registration of Assurances). Within the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of a High Court, the registrar shall be appointed by the Chief Justice of such Court, and, without such limits, by the local government. Every registrar so appointed may be removed by the Chief Justice or local government appointing him. VIII. The Register of Marriages mentioned in the sixth secMarriage register tion shall, at all reasonable times, be open for to be open for pub- inspection; and certified extracts therefrom lic inspection. shall, on application, be given by the registrar on payment to him by the applicant of Rs.2 for each such extract. Every such register shall be evidence of the truth of the statements therein contained. Penalty for solemnising marriage contrary to section IX. Any priest knowingly and wilfully solemnising any marriage contrary to and in violation of the fourth section shall, on conviction thereof, be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to Rs. 200, or with both. IV. X. Any priest neglecting to comply with any of the requisi |