Assam Assembly passes Bill to repeal Muslim marriage, divorce act; govt registration made mandatory

GUWAHATI — The Assam Assembly on Thursday passed a Bill to abolish a British-era Muslim marriage and divorce act, making government registration of marriages compulsory and doing away with the role of Qazis in registering any Muslim marriage in the state.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that all Muslim marriages must now be registered with the sub-registrars to provide security to Muslim women, adding the Bill will also help to eradicate child marriages across the state.

Speaking in the Assembly during a discussion on the Bill, CM Sarma said: “The highest Muslim population states in India are Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala. There was already a law to register Muslim marriages. In Kerala, this act must have been brought either by the Congress or the Left government, as the BJP was never in power in the southern state.”

He also expressed concern about Muslim daughters and asserted that the Muslim marriage registration act would give them safety and security.

Addressing an opposition MLA, the Chief Minister said: “I urge the opposition members not to oppose this bill. This new act will not only give security to the Muslim daughters, it will also help to abolish the evil of child marriages.”

The Assam CM also asserted that Muslim marriages have been a concern for the Supreme Court also and the top Court has given several observations on this matter.

Sarma also mentioned that the opposition should not think about the Qazi losing their jobs and rather, the members of this house should always think about a safe future for their Muslim daughters.

Moreover, he also argued that the majority of Qazi are teachers by profession.

“There are only 90 Qazis in Assam who will lose relevance after the marriage registration act. However, most of them work as teachers, and so they obviously cannot continue the profession of Qazi along with teaching,” the Chief Minister said, adding that he is open to holding a dialogue with the group of Qazis after the act is passed.

He further stated that registration of all marriages has to be done as per a Supreme Court order, and the state cannot support an entity like Qazi for this purpose.