History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

APPENDIX. 299

“Marriage” means a marriage between Parsis whether con“Marriage.” tracted before or after the commencement of j . “ ” CO P39) “ Husband and wife.” this Act; and husband and “ wife Tespectively mean a Parsi husband and a Parsi wife.

“ Section.” “Section ” means a section of this Act. “ Chief Justice.” “Chief Justice” includes senior judge. “Court.” “Court” means a court constituted under this Act.

“British India” means the territories which are or shall be , vested in Her Majesty or her successors by the Statute 21 and 22 Vic., cap. 106, entitled “An Act for the better Government of India.” And, in any part of British India in which this Act operates, . “Local Government ” means the person author“Tiocal Government. .. . . ised 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,

* British India.

Il.—Or MARRIAGES BETWEEN PArsis.

III. No marriage contracted after the commencement of this Reqnisites t valid: Act shall be valid, if the contracting parties are ity of Parsi mar- related to each other in any of the degrees ziagee: 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.