MAPPING THE LEGAL IDENTITY OF GOAN CATHOLIC MARRIAGES FOR DOMICILES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR WOMEN

Abstract

In Indian personal law, Goa is the only state which operates under a Uniform Civil Code which is, the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867. The code is celebrated nationally as a model for personal law reform. However, an unexplored gap creates a legal vacuum as Goan Catholic marriages are simultaneously governed by three distinct legal systems: Canon Law, the Portuguese Civil Code 1867, and the Indian Divorce Act, 1869. None of these three laws are legislatively coordinated, and the applicability shifts unpredictably depending on the domicile status, migration, and citizenship of the parties. No existing study has mapped the domicile dimension of this tri-legal conflict or its specific consequences for women. We aimed to identify, document, and analyse the precise legal injuries produced by this very unexplored area, specifically the annulment-divorce disconnect, the limbo period, property and custody consequences, and the amplification of these harms when domicile shifts.  We employed a mixed-methods approach combining doctrinal legal analysis of primary sources such as statutes, parliamentary records, and case laws.  This work contributes: 

• the first systematic legal mapping of the tri-legal conflict governing Goan Catholic marriages across five domicile scenarios;
• a doctrinal analysis of the annulment-divorce disconnect and its property and custody consequences; and
• a set of five concrete legislative and judicial reform proposals.

The findings demonstrate that Goa's celebrated Uniform Civil Code contains a structural fault line that travels with Goan Catholic women wherever they migrate, denying them consistent matrimonial protection. The study is limited by its reliance on self-reported survey data and the near-absence of reported case law from Himalayan and migrant Goan Catholic communities, suggesting significant under documentation of legal harm.