A senior Sikh leader and a senior Jewish rabbi have both spoken out against redefining marriage as opposition continues to mount against the Government.

Lord Singh and Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet voiced their concern as it emerged from the Government’s consultation document that the words “husband and wife” are to be removed from some official forms under plans to legalise same-sex marriage.

Lord Singh, the head of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said that the Government’s proposals would provide “no real gain because the law rightly gives every respect to a civil partnership”.

He added: “It is more of a sideways assault on religion, that ‘we can dilute your beliefs and values’, and I find that concerning.”

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Lord Singh, a member of the House of Lords, said he would vote against same-sex marriage legislation in the upper chamber.

Speaking to the same paper, Rabbi Schochet, who in the past has been considered a front-runner for the next Chief Rabbi, said: “The hallmark of Judaism is the family. The traditional family – a husband, a wife and children.

“Ultimately, of course, it’s not for me to dictate to government and start telling them what to do, I can just simply decry what is going on on the basis of what I consider to be, from a religious biblical perspective, an assault on religious values.”

Meanwhile, the Government’s consultation document on marriage has revealed that the terms “husband” and “wife” are to disappear from some official documents under the proposed same-sex marriage legislation.

Immigration and benefits forms will replace some references with the “neutral term” “spouses and partners”, the Daily Telegraph reports.

It follows consultation with gay rights groups, who have also drawn up draft bills for divorce laws to avoid “confusion”.

Campaigners for same-sex marriage say that, while they wish the terms “husband and wife” to be retained in most cases, there will be examples in which it would be confusing to refer to husbands and wives.

It emerged this week that the terms “mother and father” may also have to be taken out of official paperwork to accommodate the new arrangements.

An official Home Office background paper says: “The UK Border Agency will require minor changes to application forms and staff guidance to highlight the changes to the law, and replacing references to ‘husband and wife’ with more neutral terms ‘spouses and partners’.”

A draft divorce bill, drawn up last year, and submitted to civil servants, sets out how divorce laws could be overhauled to accommodate the changes.

Although the terms “husband and wife” are retained throughout, in one clause, dealing with separation, the words “husband and wife” are replaced with “spouse” to avoid confusion.

Ben Summerskill, of the gay right group Stonewall, said that fears that “husband and wife” would disappear were “based on a false premise”.

He said: “It is precisely because gay people want to be called husband and wife that we are seeking this change.”

It emerged yesterday that the overhaul could cost up to £4.5 million, including £2 million to adapt IT systems at the Home Office, which oversees the General Register Office.

The Department of Work and Pensions is also expected to spend 1 million changing IT systems to accommodate same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, existing stocks of divorce petitions will have to be pulped and reprinted to allow for the change.