Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
| Photo Credit: ANI
GUWAHAT
The 126-member Assam Assembly on Thursday (August 29, 2024) passed a Bill to make the registration of Muslim marriages and divorces with the government compulsory.
The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, introduced in the House by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan, will replace the British-era Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935.
Terming the bill historic, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government aimed to do away with the Qazi system apart from preventing child marriage among Muslims. “We have neither touched the Muslim Personal Law nor interfered with Islamic marriage rituals. The Act brings the Sub-Registrar into the picture instead of the Qazis for registration,” he said.
“This Act will now make it mandatory to register marriages with the government 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 the overall growth of girls,” he said.
The Chief Minister said all marriages would be registered according to an order of the Supreme Court. He also told the House that the State has 90 Qazis, most of them government teachers.
On August 22, Mr. Mohan had said in the statement of object and reasons that the Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act was adopted by the British India government in the erstwhile Assam Province for Muslim religious and social arrangements.
He said the 1935 Act largely made the registration of Muslim marriages and divorces informal, not mandatory.
“There remains a scope of registering marriages of an intended person below 21 years (in case of male) and 18 years (in case of female) and hardly any monitoring (is) made for (the) implementation of this Act throughout the State which attracts and invite huge amount of litigation in the criminal/civil court,” the Minister said.
“There is a scope of misuse by an authorised licensee (Muslim marriage registrars) as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties,” he said.