Mumbai: Server crash dampens mood of soon-to-be couples at marriage registration office

Couples along with their witnesses wait outside the Khar Magistrate’s office to get their union officiated. Pic/Anurag Ahire

A server breakdown at the marriage registration office in Khar dampened the mood of many couples on Friday. While some had to wait for hours to make their union official, two had to return home without completing the registration. A few couples had even planned ceremonies for the day, which ended up getting delayed.

The server of the marriage registration office was down since morning and could not be fixed until late evening.

A newlywed couple exits the Magistrate's office after offline registration, in Khar on Friday. Pic/Anurag Ahire

mid-day spoke to some of the couples, who expressed their frustration. "Our appointment slot was 11 am. So we had planned a traditional ceremony at 1 pm at a wedding hall. However, when we reached the office, we found out that the server was down," said Kalyan resident Tushar Kamble.

"Because of the delay, I had to rush to the wedding hall for the rituals. I asked my friend to stand in the queue at the marriage registration office and contact me immediately when our number comes," he added.

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Sushant Jalgaonkar from Malad was at the office for his brother-in-law's wedding. "We reached the office at 9 am for the 9.30-am appointment. Because we had an early appointment, we had planned a puja at home at 4 pm. However, we were stuck at the registration office until 5 pm. We had to face so much inconvenience and the office did not even provide any facilities even though we were made to wait for hours."

Registrar Vijay Chikhale of Mumbai Suburban District Khar Marriage Registration office said, "There was a server breakdown in our portal since morning on Friday. So, we told the couples, who had planned their traditional marriage ceremony later in the day, to go get that done. We told them we will do their official registration on Monday. However, we didn't cancel or spoil anyone's marriage registration on Friday."

Chikhale added, "When we did not get any response from the server by 3 pm, we started manually registering their marriages. Around 5 pm, the server was back and running and we completed six couples' registration online. We had around 30 applicants on Friday, and the weddings of around 22 couples were registered manually. Two couples will come back on Monday."

30
No. of couples at the Khar office