GUWAHAT: The Assam government has constituted a three-member committee to draft the proposed anti-polygamy law. It has been constituted with Advocate General, Legal Remembrancer and Director General of Police. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government had earlier constituted a committee to examine the ‘legislative competence of the state legislature’ to enact a law to end polygamy.
“We first wanted to check if the state government has the right to ban polygamy. We had formed a committee with retired Gauhati High Court judge Justice Rumi Phookan as its chairperson and it said that the government has the right to do so,” said Sarma. The government had sought the views of the public on the law. Altogether, 149 individuals and organisations responded and of them, 146 supported it while the remaining objected it.
“Ahead of the last Assembly elections, we had promised to bring in a law against love jihad. We have now formed another committee and assigned it to draft the proposed anti-polygmy law,” Sarma said. He was hopeful that the bill can be introduced in the Assembly in December. The previous committee had understandably scrutinised the provisions of Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937, along with Article 25 of Constitution of India, in relation to the directive principle of state policy for a uniform civil code.
Earlier, Sarma could not share any data on the prevalence of polygamy in the state but he said that many cases were detected in southern Assam’s Barak Valley and central Assam’s Jamunamukh and Hojai. Polygamy is almost nil among indigenous Muslims and people who are educated, he said.
Response sought
The government had sought views of people on the law. Altogether, 149 individuals and organisations responded and 146 of them supported the proposed law while the remaining objected. Earlier, Himanta Biswa Sarma could not share any data on the prevalence of polygamy but he said many cases have been detected in Barak Valley, Jamunamukh and Hojai