One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: A sapinda marriage is not automatically illegal, because the answer turns on arithmetic rather than on what the families say. If the common ancestor falls outside the sapinda limits when the relationship is traced separately for each of you, there is no bar under the Hindu Marriage Act. If it does not, the Special Marriage Act is usually the workable route, since it works off its own short list of prohibited relationships instead of the sapinda rule.
Rohan Kulkarni and Ananya Deshpande had been together since their second year of engineering in Pune. They were also, inconveniently, related. Their common ancestor sat four generations up on Rohan's father's side, and well past the third generation on Ananya's mother's side. That arithmetic, which nobody in either family could agree on, was the entire problem.
By early 2025 the objections had hardened. Rohan's parents gave him a fortnight to end it. Two local advocates told the couple different things. One said the marriage would be void for sapinda relationship. The other said to just go ahead and keep quiet about it. Neither answer helped.
They approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao in March 2025 with two years of hand-drawn family trees and a lot of panic. Advocate Sudhir Rao and his office traced the common ancestor through both lines separately, and the Section 3(f) calculation came out clean. That reading, and the route it opened, had not come up in the earlier consultations. A suit for declaration of marital status was filed, and Advocate Sudhir Rao's handling of the genealogy evidence helped secure the order in the couple's favour. The parents were not convinced. The order did not need them to be.
Key Facts of the Case
- The couple were adults, both Hindus, and had been in a relationship for several years.
- They were distant relatives, so a "sapinda relationship" question arose under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
- The common ancestor fell within five generations of Rohan's father's line, but beyond three generations of Ananya's mother's line.
- Under Section 3(f), the common ancestor must fall within the sapinda limits with reference to each party separately, not just one of them.
- Rohan's parents opposed the match on grounds of the family relation and the family's reputation.
- Both parties were adults, so no parental consent was legally required in the first place.
- The dispute was civil, not criminal. There was no offence in the relationship itself.
- The forum was a civil court hearing a suit for declaration of marital status.
The Direct Legal Answer
Here is the short version before the detail.
Can we legally marry if he is a sapinda to me but I am not a sapinda to him?
Section 3(f) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 defines sapinda relationship by tracing lines of ascent, five generations through the father and three through the mother, counting the person as the first generation. Two people are sapindas only if they share a common lineal ascendant who falls within those limits with reference to each of them. If the common ancestor is outside the limits when the line is traced for one of you, they are not sapindas, and Section 5(v) is not attracted. That needs to be established on evidence, not asserted.
Does his family's objection change anything legally?
No. Both of you are adults. Parents' disapproval, or a fear that the family's reputation will suffer, has no legal effect on the validity of a marriage between two consenting adults.
Is the Special Marriage Act a way around the problem?
Often, yes. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 does not use the