Assam government tables bill to abolish Muslim marriages, divorce laws

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The Assam government introduced a bill to repeal a law to register marriages and divorces of Muslims on Thursday. The government said that the existing law had scope to allow marriages of minors from the community.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan tabled The Assam Repealing Bill, 2024, in the Assembly to abolish The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935, and the Assam Repealing Ordinance 2024.

"There remains a scope of registering marriages of intended person below 21 years (in case of male) and 18 years (in case of female)," he said in the Statement of Object and Reasons of the Repealing Bill.

The law hardly had any provisions for monitoring the implementation of the Act throughout the state and attracted huge amounts of litigation in the courts, Mohan added.

"There is a scope of misuse by both authorised licensee (Muslim marriage registrars) as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties," Mohan said.

He added that as the registration of marriages and divorces were not mandatory, and the registration mechanism was informal, it left a lot of scope for non-compliance of the norms.

"It is a pre-independence Act adopted by British India Government for the then Province of Assam for Muslim religious and social arrangements," the minister said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that his government will introduce a bill in the ongoing Autumn Session making registration of marriage and divorce mandatory for the Muslim community.

Addressing a press conference after a cabinet meeting, Sarma said the government will table the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Bill, 2024.

Last month, the Cabinet had approved the Repealing Bill to abolish the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules of 1935. The law permitted underage marriages under specific conditions.

The Cabinet approved the decision to repeal the Act on February 23, in a bid to end child marriages in the state.

The India, News, Breaking news, Latest breaking news, Latest local news, National news, Latest national news, Online news, Today news, Today news headlines, News headlines, Latest online news, News of the day, India News, Latest India News, India News Today, Live India Newsparties, however, slammed the decision, and termed it discriminatory against the Muslims. The parties also claimed that the Assam government brought the Bill to polarise the voters in an election year, referring to the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

(With PTI inputs)