The Bengal government has issued a notice to temporarily halt marriage registrations from January 2 to 5.

The office of the Registrar General of Marriages, West Bengal, has issued letters to around 1,000 marriage officers in the state, citing maintenance work of the marriage portal on the four days.

Applications for marriage registrations as well as the process have been done only virtually, on the portal, since 2019. Hence, no marriage registration-related work will be done on these four days.

The timing has raised brows.

"A mere three-day advance notice (of the portal's four-day closure) has left those who submitted notices or applications for marriage registration during the period in the lurch," a marriage registration officer in East Burdwan said.

A law department official said: "Marriage registrations in Bengal through the portal have been going on since 2019. Despite occasional closures lasting around three to four hours, this is the first instance of a four-day shutdown."

He added that the registration process was riddled with technical snags that needed to be ironed out urgently.

“Since November 1, 2022, biometric fingerprint verification has been introduced for marriage registration. However, technical glitches have led to numerous instances where even officers' fingerprints fail to match. Consequently, marriage registrations have failed on specified days," the official added.

Even the Registrar General's office, responsible for overseeing the marriage registration process, has experienced difficulty in matching fingerprints of brides, grooms and witnesses, raising concerns about the system's accuracy, some marriage officers claimed.

"The four-day closure of the portal will only add to the harassment of those who had booked prior dates for registration," a marriage registration official added.

Dr Md Salim Ansari, the joint secretary of the law department, said: "We have received numerous complaints on biometric fingerprint problems. We are actively working to resolve the issue."