Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is a central legislation, enacted "to amend and codify the law relating to marriage among Hindus". The Act governs the marital relations of a very large segment of the Indian populace, as would be clear from Section 2 of the Act. It embraces withing its ambit any person who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms or developments, including a Virashaiva, a Lingayat or a follower of the Brahmo, Prarthana or Arya Samaj, to any person who is a Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion and to any other person domiciled in the territories to which this Act extends, who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion, unless it is proved that any such person would not have been governed by the Hindu law or by any custom or usage as part of that law in respect of any of the matters dealt with in the Act, if it had not been passed. This gives us an idea as to the applicability of the Act to a very large section of the Indian society. Hence the interpretat ....