4. Restriction on wasteful expenses.--(1) No
person celebrating his marriage or the marriage of any other person shall serve
or allow any one to serve meals or other edibles to the persons in-connection
with a marriage in a club, hotel, restaurant, wedding hall, community centre
community park or any other place, except "one dish, which means one salan, rice with roti and one
sweet dish with" soup or, hot or cold soft drinks:
Provided that one dish
may be served at the Walima ceremony to a maximum
number of three hundred invitees, including hosts, attending the ceremony:
Provided
further that in case the number of invitees, including hosts, attending the Walima ceremony exceeds three hundred, no meal shall be
served except soup or, hot or cold soft drinks.
(2) Nothing contained in sub-Section (1) shall
apply to the eating of meals within the house by the members of family
celebrating the marriage, and the house guests.
COMMENTARY
Vires of Act V of 2003,
enacted by Provincial Assembly of Punjab on the touchstone of Ordinance II of
2000 enacted by Federal Government, assailed. Art. 143 of the Constitution, absolutely make it clear that Act V of 2003,
could not be enacted, as the same was in consistent with Ordinance II of 2000,
promulgated by Federal Government. PLJ 2005 SC 505.
Walima and other marriage
functions prevalent in the society have been made a source of ostentatious
display of wealth inasmuch as people spend huge moneys on the occasions of Barat, Walima and other functions
which have taken the form of Asraaf (extravagance), which has
been strictly prohibited
in the Holy Qur'an. Supreme Court while
pointing out the evils of such ceremonies observed that it is the duty of the
State to take steps to encourage the celebration of marriage ceremonies in
simple and informal ways, such as performance of Nikah
in the mosque of the locality so that the element of inconvenience/harm was
eliminated from the society. PLD 2005 SC 1.
Vires of