Assam: Draft for law against polygamy ready

 Three petitioners opposing proposed law remained absent during hearing

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The draft for the proposed law banning polygamy in the state is ready for deliberations. The State Government took the decision to enact such a law last year to hold the bull by its horns, insofar as population explosions in the state are concerned.

The State Government did form a committee in September 2023 to draft the proposed law. The committee comprises Advocate General Debojit Saikia, Additional Advocate General Nalin Kohli, DGP GP Singh, Legal Remembrancer Romen Baruah, Home and Political Department’s Secretary Biswajit Pegu, and ACS officer Pankaj Chakravarty. This committee gave an outline for the draft law against polygamy.

Earlier, the State Government entrusted an expert committee led by Justice (retd.) Rumi Kumari Phookan as chairperson to see if the State Government could enact a law banning polygamy in the state. After examining all the pros and cons, the expert committee said that the State Government could pass such a law. The executive summary of the report of the expert committee reads, ‘The Indian Constitution grants the Union and states the authority to enact legislation on certain subjects. ‘Marriage’ falls under the concurrent list, enabling both the Centre and states to pass law on it. The Doctrine of Repugnancy (Article 254) stipulates that if the state legislation contradicts central registration, the state law will be overridden unless it receives the prior assent of the President of India’.

The State Government then sought the opinions of various stakeholders, including organizations, on the proposed law. Of the 149 individuals and organizations responded to the state government’s call, 146 were in favour of the proposed law, and three were against it. On January 3, this year, the State Government called all three organizations that opposed the proposed law to justify their stance. However, none of the three organizations was present during the hearing.

Now, the committee will deliberate in detail on the outline drawn for the proposed law.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said earlier that the government would introduce a Bill on the proposed law against polygamy in the next Assembly session. The State Assembly will have its budget session in February this year.

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