RIYADH — There has been a tremendous increase in the number of electronic marriages following the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic early last year. The cases of e-marriages shot up 28 percent reaching 150,171 during the period between April 2020 and March 2021 as against 117,025 e-marriages during the period between March 2019 and April 2020. The electronic marriage contract service, launched by the Ministry of Justice, has been instrumental in facilitating and accelerating the conclusion of the contract without personally approaching any judicial courts. It also facilitated carrying out pre-marriage health screening before fixing the session for concluding the marriage contract in the presence of the licensed marriage official. This services aims to ensure electronic data documentation in a perfect manner and complete the marriage contract related procedures and deliver them to the beneficiaries in a safe manner. This initiative has brought about a great positive transformation in the registration of marriages in the Kingdom. Under the initiative, the e-marriage contract will be concluded through the ministry's Ziwaj portal. There is no need to personally go to the court and the entire procedures are dispensed with using any paper documents. The process of online documentation begins when one of the concerned parties — either the would be husband or wife — enters the ministry's portal and then goes to the electronic marriage contract page and registers the data. After selecting the nearby marriage official and fixing the appropriate date for concluding the marriage contract, a message will be sent to the other party to suggest the conditions, if any. This will be followed by sending a message to the marriage official asking him to furnish details such as the name of the applicant, his mobile phone and the date of the appointment. Then the marriage official reaches the place for holding the marriage contract session where the husband, wife and her guardian will put their signatures, along with their fingerprint. Then the two witnesses will sign on the e-document, and will ensure that the premarital health screening was conducted before holding the session. Within minutes, the electronic contract will be documented. The marriage official will verify the data of the two parties electronically. He will also ascertain the fulfillment of all the requirements under the Shariah rules and legal regulations with regard to solemnizing the marriage contract.
