- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
My faith in humanity has been destroyed by this ordeal. I am not a piece of luggage that needs to be carried up two floors, Virali Modi had said in an anguished social media post after the incident.
By: Shubham Ghosh
A MARRIAGE official in India has been suspended after a woman with disability was forced to go to the second-floor office of the registrar on the day of her wedding to complete the legal formalities.
The incident happened at Khar area of Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
The revenue department of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, came up with a government resolution on Wednesday (25) to suspend Arun Ghodekar, the accused official.
The matter came to the fore last week when Virali Modi, who uses a wheelchair and identifies herself as a disability rights activist, in a post on X claimed she had to be carried to the second-floor office of the marriage registrar in the city on her wedding day because the building had no lift and the officials refused to come down to complete the formalities.
“How is this fair? What happened to the Accessible India campaign? Just because I’m a wheelchair user, do I not have the right to get married to someone I love? What if someone had slipped and what if I had fallen on my wedding day? Who is responsible?” she asked in her post.
PLEASE RT!
I am disabled and I got married at the Registrars Office at Khar Mumbai on 16/10/23. The office was on the 2nd floor WITHOUT a lift. They wouldn’t come downstairs for the signatures and I had to be carried up two flights of stairs to get married. pic.twitter.com/ZNCQF3gJRY
— Virali Modi (@Virali01) October 18, 2023
Priyanka Chaturvedi, a parliamentarian from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) also took up the matter and wrote to the municipal commissioner of Mumbai seeking an enquiry into the incident.
The post, which went viral on the social media platform, also received a response from Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, who said he was sorry for what she had to face and assured to take “corrective and appropriate action”.
The state revenue department in the resolution said Ghodekar, as a government official, insisted that the disabled person come to the second floor on the grounds of collecting her and the groom’s fingerprints and photos on the computer.
“There are provisions in the Special Marriage Act 1954 where the marriage officer needs to go to the wedding location at a reasonable distance from the marriage registration office. The government officers have to respond and provide service to the weaker sections,” the resolution said.
“People close to Virali Modi and her fiance, Kshitij Nayak, telephoned Ghodekar, requesting him to come downstairs to complete the marriage registration procedure. But Ghodekar insisted that they come to the second floor of the building, which had no lift. For violating the service rules and indecent behaviour, Arun Ghodekar will remain suspended till further order,” it added.
In her post, Modi said, “I am disabled and I got married at the Registrars Office at Khar Mumbai on 16/10/23. The office was on the 2nd floor WITHOUT a lift. They wouldn’t come downstairs for the signatures and I had to be carried up two flights of stairs to get married.”
“I am disheartened that my country’s government and citizens cannot accommodate to my disability. My faith in humanity has been destroyed by this ordeal. I am not a piece of luggage that needs to be carried up two floors. I am a human being and my rights matter!” she added.
(With PTI inputs)
