By PTI
The Assam government on Thursday introduced a bill to repeal a law to register marriages and divorces of Muslims, stating that it had scope to allow marriages of minors from the community.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan 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.
“There remains a scope of registering marriages of intended person below 21 years (in case of male) and 18 years (in case of female),” he said in the Statement of Object and Reasons of the Repealing Bill.
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.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
