Assam has also taken its step towards Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The cabinet headed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday decided to repeal the 89-year-old law related to registration of marriages and divorces by Muslims living in the state.
Giving information about this decision, Tourism Minister Jayant Malla Barua said, “Our Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had already announced that Assam will implement Uniform Civil Code. Today we have taken a very important decision to repeal the Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act, 1935.”
Let us tell you that in this Act, a provision was made for voluntary registration for Muslim marriage and divorce. The new decision of the government means that it will no longer be possible to register Muslim marriage and divorce under this law in Assam.
Baruah said, we already have a special marriage act and we want all marriages to be registered under the same provisions.
He said that currently there are 94 authorized persons in Assam who can register Muslim marriage and divorce.
But with the decision of the cabinet, their authority will end after the district authorities issue instructions for the same. Barua said, “Since these people were earning livelihood by registering marriages and divorces, the state cabinet has decided to give them a lump sum compensation of Rs 2 lakh each.”
He said that apart from being a step forward towards a Uniform Civil Code, the Cabinet felt that it was necessary to repeal the Act. This was a very old act and had been in place since the British era. Did not match today’s social norms. He said, “We saw that the existing law was being used to register marriages of underage boys and girls. “We feel that today’s step will play a role in preventing such child marriages.”
On February 12, CM Sarma had said that his government was planning to bring a strong law to ban polygamy and implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state.
He had said that an expert committee would look into how to include both polygamy and UCC in a single law.