Guwahati: The Assam government has formed a three-member committee to draft the proposed anti-polygamy law in the state. This bill to ban polygamy is likely to be introduced in the state Assembly when it meets in December.
The newly-formed committee comprises the advocate general, the director general of police and a legal remembrancer.
“Ahead of the last Assembly elections, we had promised to bring in a law against love jihad. Covering both (polygamy and love jihad), we marched ahead to bring the law. We have now formed another committee and assigned it to draft the proposed anti-polygamy law,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told media persons in Guwahati.
The Assam government had in May formed a committee to examine if the state legislature has the power to bring in the proposed legislation. This committee was required to analyse the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937, along with Article 25 of the Constitution of India, in relation to the directive principle of state policy for a Uniform Civil Code.
The four-member committee included Justice (Retired) Rumi Kumari Phookan, chairperson of the committee; Advocate General Of Assam Debajit Saikia; Additional Advocate General of Assam Nalin S Kohli; and advocate Nekibur Zaman as members. The committee was asked to submit its report within 60 days.
“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. The committee said the government has the right,” Sarma said.
The government had also sought the views of the public on the proposed anti-polygamy law. A total of 149 individuals and organisations had responded. Of them, 146 supported it while the remaining three were against the proposed law, the CM informed.
While Sarma could not share data on the prevalence of polygamy in the state during his announcement earlier, he had said that several cases were detected in southern Assam’s Barak Valley and central Assam’s Jamunamukh as well as Hojai.
He had also said that polygamy was “almost nil among the educated class and the indigenous Muslims of Assam”.