Synopsis
The statement of objectives of the repealing bill states, “There remains a scope of registering marriages of persons below 21 years (in case of males) and 18 years (for females). It hardly had any provisions for monitoring the implementation of the Act throughout the state and it attracted huge amounts of litigation in court”.
AgenciesGUWAHATI: The Assam government on Thursday introduced a bill to repeal a law to register marriages and divorces of Muslims on that grounds that it had the 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.
The statement of objectives of the repealing bill states, “There remains a scope of registering marriages of persons below 21 years (in case of males) and 18 years (for females). It hardly had any provisions for monitoring the implementation of the Act throughout the state and it attracted huge amounts of litigation in court”.
“There is a scope of misuse by both the authorised licensee (Muslim marriage registrars) as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties. Besides, the registration of marriages and divorces were not mandatory, and the registration mechanism was informal that left a lot of scope for non-compliance of the norms,” it stated.
“It is a pre-independence Act adopted by the British India Government for the then Province of Assam for Muslim religious and social arrangements,” it added.
The Assam Cabinet meeting on Wednesday approved the Muslim Marriage Registration Bill 2024 whereby the registration of marriage will be done by government and not by Qazi and registering child marriage will be illegal.
Last month, the Cabinet had approved the Repealing Bill to abolish the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules of 1935, which permitted underage marriages under specific conditions.
The Assam Cabinet had approved the decision to repeal the Act on February 23, to end child marriages in the state.
The opposition parties had decried the decision, terming it “discriminatory against the Muslims” brought in to polarise the voters in an election year.
Earlier, the Assam government was planning to bring the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) post Lok Sabha polls.
Sarma told the state assembly recently that “under UCC, there are basically four points: there cannot be marriage without attaining a certain age, men cannot have two wives, a woman is entitled to a share of parental property and live-in relationships must be registered….”
He said, “In UCC, there are no customs, precedents. UCC does not deal with ways of worship and is not connected to one’s faith.”
He said in the state assembly earlier that under the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935, the marriage of people under the age of nine or ten were allowed.
The Assam government had earlier announced that the proposed law on UCC would exempt tribal people.
In October last year, the Assam police arrested more than 1,000 people in a massive state-wide crackdown against child marriage. As per the state government data, 3,098 persons were arrested in the first two months of last year under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The state registered 4,363 cases of child marriage since February 3 this year. Sarma had earlier said that child marriage will be eradicated from Assam completely by 2026.
