Guwahati: The Assam Assembly on Thursday passed a bill for compulsory government registration of marriage and divorce of Muslim people and repealed the Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules of 1935 in the state, which allowed underage marriages under specific conditions.
The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024 was introduced by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan on Tuesday.
While replying to debate on the bill, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma clarified that all earlier registrations of marriages conducted by Kazis will remain valid and only new ones will come under the purview of the legislation.
He said, “We are not interfering with the marriages solemnised by Islamic rituals under Muslim Personnel Law at all. Our only condition is that Islam prohibited marriages will not be registered.”
Mr Sarma reiterated that with the enactment of this new law, child marriage registration will be completely banned in the state. The bill will also prevent men from deserting wives after marriage and strengthen the institution of marriage, he added.
Mr Sarma said, "Our aim is not only to abolish child marriages but 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.
It is significant that in the Statement of Object and Reason, it has been said that the bill has been proposed for prevention of child marriages and marriages without consent of both parties.
It will help check polygamy, enable married women to claim their right to live in matrimonial house, maintenance, etc, and enable widows to claim their inheritance rights and other benefits and privileges which they are entitled to after the death of their husband.
The minister while introducing the bill argued that existing law had hardly any provisions for monitoring the implementation of the Act throughout the state and it attracted huge amounts of litigation in the court.
"There was a scope of misuse by both authorised licensees (Muslim marriage Registrars) as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties," he said.
Besides, the registration of marriages and divorces was not mandatory, and the registration mechanism was informal leaving a lot of scope for non-compliance of the norms, he added.
"It was a pre-independence Act adopted by the British India government for the then Province of Assam for Muslim religious and social arrangements," the minister said.
Earlier, Muslim marriages were registered by Kazis. However, this new bill will ensure that all marriages of the community will be registered with the government.
The opposition parties however decried the decision, terming it "discriminatory against the Muslims" brought in to polarise the society.
