The Assam Assembly Thursday passed a bill for compulsory government registration of marriage and divorce of Muslim people, a replacement for the 1935 Act that had governed these matters in the state so far.Calling it a “historic day”, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that his government’s next target would be to ban polygamy.
In a social media post on X, the CM said: “This Act will now make it mandatory to register marriages with the Govt and cannot contravene the legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. It will also act as a strict deterrent against teenage pregnancy and improve overall growth of our girls.”
He added: “I thank all the legislators who pledged their support to this Bill and Govt’s vision of preventing child marriage. This Bill is above party politics and is a means to give our girls a life of dignity.”
Today is a historic day in our effort to fight the social evil of child marriage. The #AssamLegislativeAssembly has passed the 'Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024'.
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 29, 2024
This Act will now make it mandatory to register marriages with the Govt and… pic.twitter.com/H7UiB03S1J
What does the Bill aim to achieve?
The Bill aims to abolish the Kazi system, where clerics register Muslim marriages. This will now allow all the marriages to be registered with the government. While replying to queries, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that all earlier registrations of marriages conducted by Kazis will remain valid and only new ones will come under the purview of the legislation.
The tabled Bill states amongst its primary objectives the “prevention of child marriages”, “prevention of marriages without the consent of the parties” and to “check polygamy”. Among the other objectives it lists are “enabling women to claim their rights to live in the matrimonial house, maintenance, etc”, “enabling widows to claim their inheritance rights and other benefits and privileges which they are entitled to after the death of their husband”, deterring “men from deserting women after marriage”, and “strengthening the institute of marriage”.
Source: msn
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