OA146002012

i) Route One was that the registration of the marriage by the Marriage Officer Karnataka on 15 September 2012 under the s. 15 Special Marriage Act 1954 (SMA) validated the religious marriage as of the date of its celebration.

ii) Route Two was the proposition that Indian law recognised a marriage between two muslims celebrated in a mosque as a valid marriage in the absence of registration if they had the capacity to marry.

The appellant is a citizen of India born in 1976. She appeals the decision of Judge Morris sitting in the First-tier Tribunal dated 22 March 2013. In that decision she dismissed the appellant�s appeal against a refusal of entry clearance to join the sponsor in the United Kingdom as his wife. The sponsor is Mr Master who is a British citizen.

ii. Mr Master and Ms. H are both muslims by religion and celebrated their union in a nikah ceremony in their home.

iii. Such a ceremony may have made them man and wife for the purposes of Islamic law but did not do so for the purposes of their respective civil status in the law of the United Kingdom.