CATHOLIC MARRIAGES IN BOMBAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 92, 12 January 1929, Page 24

CATHOLIC MARRIAGES IN BOMBAY

A Judgment which, if upheld in other parts of India, automatically nullifies marriages of Roman Catholics if celebrated outside churches, has been delivered by Sessions Judge Mr. C. G. Shannon, of Nasik, in the Bombay Presidency, says the London “Daily Telegraph.” He has just acquitted' Peter Filipe Neri Saldanha, an employee of the Eastern Telegraph'Company, on a bigamy charge under the following circumstances: —Saldanha married a woman named Anne Nazareth under the Civil Marriages Act, and the wedding took place, therefore, not in the ehurch but by the Registrar. He married a few days later one Olive Souza, who, in the case under review, unsuccessfully charged him with concealing the prior marriage, and, therefore. with committing bigamy. This case is of extraordinary interest, owing to a reference in the proceedings to the condition under which Bombay was given to King Charles 11. by the Portuguese as part of the marriage dowry of his wife, the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza. This'condition enacted that the Roman Catholic rites and religion should not be infringed, and that if they should be violated Bombay would automatically revert to Portugal. It was stated in evidence, therefore, that the only marriage recognised by Roman Catholicism was one celebrated in a Roman Church. On these grounds the judge held that the first marriage, being a Registry Office marriage, was ipvalid. Defendant's argument was that,- though he knew the first marriage was in- a Catholic sense illegal, he' was induced by the bride, against his own wishes, to contract the civil ceremony.