Decision to ban polygamy in State by Assam Government

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Apart from an all-out war against child marriage, the State Government is contemplating on prohibiting polygamy in the State.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Though polygamy is not prevalent among the educated and Assamese Muslims, among the Muslims of the Barak Valley, Hojai, Jamunamukh, etc., polygamy is largely prevalent. The trend of men attaining 65 years of age marrying young girls from poor families is also common in some areas of the state. To keep all such evil practices at bay, the State Government wants to ban polygamy in the state and has decided to form an expert committee to check for legal provisions for the same. We are not going through the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), but we want to ban polygamy under a state Act. The government has decided to form an expert committee comprising legal luminaries to investigate whether the State Government has the authority to prohibit polygamy.”

He further said that the committee will engage broadly in discussions with all stakeholders and scrutinize the provisions of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937. The Chief Minister said, “We want the proposed committee to submit its report in six months. Earlier, polygamy was prevalent among Muslims with the consent of the wife. However, the wife’s consent does not have any place in the practice now. De facto polygamy, or informal polygamy, is also becoming a trend now. In this practice, the male partners of couples maintain illicit relationships with other females without giving them the status of wives. Our motto is to ban all forms of polygamy, formal or informal.”

On child marriage, the Chief Minister said, “More arrests and cases are in the offing as we have more information on child marriage now. We will fight an all-out war against child marriage till the menace ends.”

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