Assam passes bill to abolish Muslim marriages, divorce act

The Assam assembly on Thursday passed a bill to repeal a law to register marriages and divorces of Muslims.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan had on August 22 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.

Taking part in the discussion, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said: "Our aim is not only to abolish child marriages, ... also to get away with the Kazi system. We want to bring registration of Muslim marriages and divorces under the government system."

He said that registration of all marriages has to be done as per a Supreme Court order, but the state cannot support a private body like that of Kazis for this purpose.

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

It hardly had any provisions for monitoring the implementation of the Act throughout the state and it attracted huge amounts of litigation in the court, he 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.

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, he added.

"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.

The Assam government on Tuesday introduced The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Bill, 2024.

Last month, the Cabinet had approved the Repealing Bill to abolish The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces 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, in a bid to end the social menace of child marriage 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.