NEW DELHI: Assam government on Thursday decided to repeal the colonial-era Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules 1935.
Sharing the government’s decision on X, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called it a “significant step to ensure justice” as it would put “additional safeguard against child marriage“.
“We have taken a significant step to ensure justice for our daughters and sisters by putting additional safeguards against child marriage.In the meeting of the Assam Cabinet today we have decided to repeal the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules 1935 vide the Assam Repealing Bill 2024,” the Assam CM wrote in a post on X.
The Assam CM said that suitable legislation will be brought for the registration of Muslim marriages in the state by the next assembly session.
The repeal of the law will bring in several changes, including banning child marriages, making registration compulsory and eliminating qazis — the marriage and divorce registrar.
Section 8 of the Act provides that if the bride or the groom or both are minors, the application for registration of marriage has to be made by their lawful guardians — a mechanism which will be scrapped after the law is junked.
The move comes months after the state cabinet decided to junk the British-era Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act of 1935, transferring all nuptials and divorce proceedings under that law to the ambit of the Special Marriage Act of 1954.
In February after the repeal of the law, minister Jayanta Malla Baruah had said the objective of repealing the “obsolete” law was to prepare the ground for implementing the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which BJP-governed Uttarakhand adopted less than three weeks ago.
Sharing the government’s decision on X, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called it a “significant step to ensure justice” as it would put “additional safeguard against child marriage“.
“We have taken a significant step to ensure justice for our daughters and sisters by putting additional safeguards against child marriage.In the meeting of the Assam Cabinet today we have decided to repeal the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules 1935 vide the Assam Repealing Bill 2024,” the Assam CM wrote in a post on X.
The Assam CM said that suitable legislation will be brought for the registration of Muslim marriages in the state by the next assembly session.
The repeal of the law will bring in several changes, including banning child marriages, making registration compulsory and eliminating qazis — the marriage and divorce registrar.
Section 8 of the Act provides that if the bride or the groom or both are minors, the application for registration of marriage has to be made by their lawful guardians — a mechanism which will be scrapped after the law is junked.
The move comes months after the state cabinet decided to junk the British-era Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act of 1935, transferring all nuptials and divorce proceedings under that law to the ambit of the Special Marriage Act of 1954.
In February after the repeal of the law, minister Jayanta Malla Baruah had said the objective of repealing the “obsolete” law was to prepare the ground for implementing the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which BJP-governed Uttarakhand adopted less than three weeks ago.