Assam has been in constant discussion for some time now. This time the reason for the discussion is the new law related to Muslim marriages. On Thursday, the state government removed the old law registering Muslim marriages and divorces and implemented a new law, which is causing a lot of controversy. The opposition says that this is discriminatory towards Muslims. At the same time, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that our aim is to ban polygamy.
The Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act 1935 has now been replaced by the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Bill 2024. There are three important conditions in the bill – child marriages cannot be registered, the registration will be done by the government instead of the Qazi, and marriage cannot take place without the consent of both parties. The opposition is cornering the government over this law, which sounds quite progressive.
Understand why there was a need to bring this bill and why it is being opposed.
What are the things in the old law?
This process was registered under the law made for marriage and divorce. Later, minor changes were made in the act. For example, in the year 2010, the word compulsory was added in place of voluntary in the act, due to which registration of marriage and divorce became mandatory. But there were many shortcomings in it, like all this was with the Qazi. In such a situation, they used to recognize the marriage of minors. Also, due to this, teen-age pregnancy was also increasing. According to the report of Indian Express, there were about 95 Qazi in the state, who used to do this work.
What changed in the new law
While removing the old law, the government argued that due to the 1935 Act, marriages of minors were also being recognized. Let us tell you that Section 8 of the old law allowed this. Now it is expected that child marriage will be reduced to a great extent.
– Now Qazi will not have any role in marriage registration. Government’s marriage and divorce registrar will have this authority.
– Seven conditions must be fulfilled for a marriage to be registered. The important conditions are- the woman must be 18 years of age and the man 21 years of age before marriage; both parties must agree to the marriage; and at least one party must be a resident of the district where marriage and divorce are registered.
– For marriage registration, a notice must be given 30 days in advance along with all the documents.
– There will be a period of 30 days to object to the marriage, during which it will be checked whether the marriage is fulfilling all the conditions. If the registrar refuses, then an appeal can be made to the District Registrar and Registrar General of Marriage.
– The registering officer checks whether any of the two parties is a minor. If found to be so, legal action will be taken.
– If the officer approves the registration of marriage despite not fulfilling any condition, he can be imprisoned for one year and fined Rs 50,000.
Why is there protest
All India United Democratic Front leader Aminul Islam raised the question that if the real purpose of the law was to stop child marriage, then this could have been done by amending sections 8 and 10 of the old law.
CM gave this reason
Responding to the opposition, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the new law was also intended to eliminate the role of Kazi. Last year, legal action was taken against more than four thousand people in Assam who had married minors. These marriages took place under the supervision of Kazis. He argued that the state cannot rely on Kazis to register marriages. They are private institutions, which have their own thinking.
Big changes are happening in the state
The anger over this law had not even ended when the Assam government announced another decision and banned the break for Friday prayers. The CM himself informed about this on X. Actually, in the Assam Assembly, Muslim MLAs used to get a two-hour break for prayers every Friday from 12 to 2 pm, which has been going on since the time of British rule. Now this has been banned.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)