Your Attested Marriage Certificate Might Not Be Valid In UAE Courts
The foregoing statement can be witnessed in different judgments issued by the
courts of UAE in divorce cases of foreign residents filed before the courts of
UAE, wherein one of such judgments will be discussed in this article by Family
Lawyers of Dubai.
The Legal Structure
Marriage is a contract that legalize the enjoyment between the husband and wife;
its objective is to protect and to form a steady family under the care of the
husband and ensuring the spouse the assumptions of affection and compassion as
mentioned in Article 19 of the Law.
Nevertheless, as mentioned above, the Family Law lays down certain prerequisites
for to prove the occurrence of any marriage solemnized within or outside the
country. This is in accordance with Article 27 of the Law which primarily states
that Marriage shall be officially recorded, but in consideration of a specific
fact, it can be proved by other means admitted by Law of Sharia.
Case Excerpt
The afore-mentioned statement was well explained by Dubai Personal Status Court
under case number 1032/2017 wherein the plaintiff (husband) registered a divorce
case against the defendant (wife) by submitting the Marriage Certificate
attested by notary public of New York as the marriage was consummated in USA.
The Plaintiff confirmed that the marriage was made in accordance with the
American law and considering the defendant is a Christian, her guardian did not
attend the marriage ceremony (as not required in American Law) and the dowry was
never discussed. The plaintiff asserted that defendant is not obedient and
initiates fights on the grounds of different religion and thus requested
annulment of marriage.
The parties since failed to amicably resolve the dispute before Family Guidance
Committee, the matter was registered before Personal Status Court, wherein the
Defendant submitted her defense stating that the Courts of UAE are incompetent
to issue a judgment on the concerned case.
Upon receiving the memorandums submitted by both the parties, the court issued a
verdict based on several provisions which will be discussed in following
paragraphs. Primarily, the court established that both the parties are not
citizens of USA, thus, none of them requested to apply for the country of their
origin and thus, in accordance with Article 2(1) of the Family Law, the case
will be governed in accordance with the Family Law of UAE.
Secondly, in reference to the defense submitted by the defendant (challenging
the competency of UAE courts to issue a verdict on the said case) the court
ruled that the statement of the defendant is invalid as per Article 5 of the
Family Law which reads as follows:
The courts of the state are competent to look into the cases of personal status
filed against citizens and expats who have country of origin or address or place
of work inside the country." Having said that, since at the time of registration
of the case, both the parties were residents of UAE, thus, courts have full
jurisdiction to try the matter.
Furthermore, the court while confirming the validity of the marriage certificate
relied on several provisions of the Family Law such as Article 4, 27(1) and 3
and Article 12(2) of the Civil Procedures Law. Additionally, the court confirmed
that the prerequisites to determine the validity of the marriage is referred
mainly to the law of each party as the time of marriage and that means of
documenting the marriage as one of the formal conditions of marriage, which
falls in the scope of application of the country where the marriage has been
concluded and that documenting the marriage is originally by official document
issued by the judge or priest appointed by the minister of justice.
In furtherance, it is valid and important to document the marriage as per Sharia
principles in terms of witnessed by two men or one man and two women, where it
is not feasible to document it by decisive oath or even by turning it away and
to evaluate the existence of a certain fact in case of non-documentation of
marriage is one of the topics exclusively determined by the court whenever its
judgment was based on solid grounds with strong reasoning of documents, it is
also established that validity of marriage cannot be determined except after
proving it in accordance with Sharia Law (referring to Personal Stats Court of
Appeal case number 65/2007).
Additionally, the court referred to Article 38 and 39 of the Family Law stating
that the guardian of an adult woman is responsible to conclude the marriage
contract for her upon her acceptance and she shall sign the contract, and the
contract shall be considered null and void if signed without guardian. In this
regards, as confirmed by the plaintiff that the father of the defendant did not
attend the marriage and there was no discussion of dowry and the submitted
marriage certificate does not indicate any offer and acceptance, guardian, dowry
or witnesses, hence this marriage is missing its pillars, and the court rules
with the rejection of the case in the manner expressed in the verdict. The court
relying on the foregoing principles rejected the case and obliged the plaintiff
to pay relevant expenses and court fees.
End Note
In conclusion, I wish to update my readers that not all the marriage
certificates are valid in UAE Family Courts, even if they are completely
attested by relevant embassies in UAE or other respective authorities in case if
one of the party is Muslim and the marriage was supposed to be according to
Islamic Principals. In such events, if your marriage is not according to the
Islamic standards and it was considered invalid, there might be some serious
consequences on your divorce applications or custody and maintenance claims.
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