Chief Minister Sarma preparing to ban polygamy in Assam

Suggestions invited on the proposed law

Guwahati (Assam) – Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has started the process of introducing a law to ban polygamy in Assam. Suggestions are invited from the public on this proposed law. The State Government had also constituted an expert committee for this proposed law. The committee had submitted a report in this regard to the Chief Minister on 6th August. Sarma then announced that he would introduce a law on this subject in this financial year.

“Members of the public are requested to send us their suggestions on the proposed law to ban polygamy in Assam,” tweets Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma pic.twitter.com/sXk2vjv2UA

— ANI (@ANI) August 21, 2023

1. The Principal Secretary of Home and Political Department has issued a notice in this regard. It states that, “State legislature has the ‘legislative competence’ to enact a law to end polygamy. Other states can also legislate on this”.

2. Earlier on 23rd January 2023, the Assam Government had decided to take action under ‘POCSO’ Act against men who marry girls below the age of 14 years. Within a month after this decision, the Assam Police arrested more than 3,000 people in the State. Most of these were the husbands of the child brides and their male family members.

3. Sarma had said in February 2023 that, “child marriage should be stopped in Assam. We are planning to introduce a new law against child marriage by the year 2026. In this, the imprisonment sentence will be increased from 2 years to 10 years”.

Clarified that the law is not against Islam

The Government notice further added that, “with respect to Islam, the Courts have held that having more than one wife is not an essential part of the religion. Legislation limiting the number of wives does not interfere with the right to practice religion and is within the scope of ‘social welfare and reform’. Therefore, this law favouring monogamy does not violate Article 25”.

Editorial Viewpoint

No one will deny the fact that those with the mentality of ‘Hum Paanch, Hamare Pachchis’ are responsible for additional burden on country’s resources due to polygamy. As this problem exists not only in Assam but also in entire country, people expect that the Union Government should take steps in this direction.