Section 3 in Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014
3. Definitions.
- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires :-(a)'Acquired property' means any property other than inherited property acquired by any person or by the family by any means;(b)'Ancestral property' means a coparcenary property. The property belonging to three male parental ancestors in the unbroken line of ascent viz. the father, grandfather and great grant father, it is not inclusive of maternal ancestral who are also an ancestor of a person. Therefore, property inherited from maternal grandfather is not an ancestral property;(c)'Couple' means and applies to husband and wife who are married under this Act and any other law for the time being in force;(d)'Court' means any Civil Court having original jurisdiction over the area;(e)'Decree' means and applies the formal expression of an adjudication which, so far as regards the court expressing it, conclusively determines the rights of the parties with regards to all or any of the matters in controversy in the suit and may be final in so far as the Act is concerned;(f)'Desertion' means abandonment against the will of the person charging it;(g)'Divorce' means for the purpose of this Act the various means of dissolution of marriage or separation amongst the Mizo by means of the Mizo custom namely: 'Mak', 'Sumchhuah', 'Kawngka Sula Mak', 'Uire', 'Atna avanga in'hen', 'Nupui Fanau chhuahsan, 'Sumlaitan';(h)'Falak' means a child whose father is not identified;(i)'Head of family' means a person who manage, rule and control all the movable and immovable properties of the family;(j)'Licenced Officer' means any person authorised/permitted by any religious denomination to solemnize marriage under this Act;(k)'Lawichal' means a male person appointed by the bride's family to safely escort the bride and her party as she leaves for the house of the bridegroom and to present her to the bridegroom;(l)'Lawi' means the bride entering the home of the bridegroom after leaving her home;(m)'Mizo' means and applies to individuals who are Mizo by birth; by adoption of minor child and persons who have been accepted as Mizo by the Society and Community at large;(n)'Major' means for the purpose of marriage, a person who, if a male, has completed twenty-one years of age, and if a female, has completed eighteen years of age;(o)'Man' means marriage price paid by the bridegroom and received by the head of the bride's family. However, marriage price not paid by mutual agreement of the parties does not invalidate the marriage if solemnized under this Act;(p)'Man pui' means the main marriage price and 'hutphah' is a security money paid alongwith the main marriage price but returned to the bridegroom's family through palai;(q)'Man 'ang' means the marriage price the head of family gives in certain amounts mainly to near relatives as their shares of the marriage price;(r)"Marriage" means a union of a man and a woman who are both major as husband and wife upon the happening of the following sequence of events :(i)a male suitor conveys a proposal for marriage of a woman through palai to the head of the family of the woman he wants to marry;(ii)if the woman's family accepts the proposal after obtaining the consent of the woman, quantum of man is fixed by the head of bride's family and the date and venue for payment of marriage price and of solemnization of marriage are fixed;(iii)the man pays the marriage price through palai;(iv)on the day marriage is solemnized and at the appointed time, the bride under escort by lawichal leaves her home and family to live with the bridegroom;(v)the Licenced Officer chosen by the parties to administer solemnization of marriage is informed of the intended marriage and is duly solemnized;(vi)when the marriage has been done in accordance with the customary rites and procedures as mentioned above or as per marriage solemnised by the Licenced Officer, the marriages becomes complete and binding;(s)'Palai' means a person or persons, not less than two in number, appointed by the brigegroom's family as negotiators to negotiate and settle the marriage;(t)'Property' means any property movable or immovable;(u)'Personal property' means any property registered in the personal name of a person and any other property purchased or gifted or inherited and so owned and possessed by a person;(v)'Re-marriage' means a marriage of a person who becomes single after his/her previous marriage;(w)'Sawn' means illegitimate child and 'sawn man' means money that is Rs. 40/- paid to the woman with whom a man has a child without getting married;(x)'Woman's personal property' means any property purchased or gifted or inherited and owned by a woman as her personal property inclusive of any property ownership of which is registered in her name and brought by her to the house of her husband at the time of marriage.Chapter - II Marriage
