Assam Assembly Passes Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "Our aim is not only to abolish child marriages, ... also to get away with the Kazi system."

In a significant and historic move, the Assam Assembly today passed the Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024 paving the way to abolish The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935 and the Assam Repealing Ordinance 2024 and making registration of Muslim marriages and divorces mandatory.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan tabled the Assam Repealing Bill, 2024 in the Assembly on August 22.

Taking part in the discussion on the Bill, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Our aim is not only to abolish child marriages, … also to get away with the Kazi system. We want to bring registration of Muslim marriages and divorces under the government system.”

CM Sarma stated that all marriages must be registered in accordance with a Supreme Court order, and the government cannot support a private organization such as Kazis for this purpose.
CM Sarma tweeted, “Today is a historic day in our effort to fight the social evil of child marriage. The #AssamLegislativeAssembly has passed the ‘Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024’. This Act will now make it mandatory to register marriages with the Govt and cannot contravene the legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. It will also act as a strict deterrent against teenage pregnancy and improve overall growth of our girls. I thank all the legislators who pledged their support to this Bill and Govt’s vision of preventing child marriage. This Bill is above party politics and is a means to give our girls a life of dignity. Next Banning Polygamy!”

https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1829102388625453557

Minister Jogen Mohan in the Statement of Object and Reasons of the Repealing Bill said, “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 that there were very few measures for monitoring the Act’s implementation across the state, and there was an extensive amount of court litigation related to it.

“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. 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,” Minister Jogen Mohan said.

“It is a pre-independence Act adopted by British India government for the then Province of Assam for Muslim religious and social arrangements,” He added.

The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Bill, 2024 was introduced by the Assam government on Tuesday.

The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act and Rules of 1935, which allowed minor marriages under certain circumstances, was repealed by the Cabinet last month.

In an effort to put an end to the social issue of child marriage in the state, the Assam Cabinet decided on February 23 to abolish the Act.

The opposition parties had criticized the move, calling it “discriminatory against the Muslims” and accusing the government of manipulating the electorate during an election year.

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