GUWAHATI: The Assam government has constituted a five-member committee to draft a Bill on proposed law to ban polygamy in the state.
The Bill, in the draft anti-polygamy law, will also include related issues like inter-religious marriages by false identity, role of Qazis in child marriage etc.
The five-member panel will be headed by Assam advocate general Devajit Saikia.
The other members of the committee are: Assam DGP GP Singh, senior additional advocate general Nalin Kohli, Legal Remembrancer and Secretary of judicial department Romen Baruah and Assam secretary for home and political department Biswajit Pegu.
While drafting the proposed anti-polygamy law, the committee will take into consideration the suggestion and objections that were received earlier in regards to the proposed act.
Furthermore, the committee is also likely to meet the chairman of the law commission while drafting the law.
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The committee has been directed to submit the draft anti-polygamy act within 45 days.
Earlier, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had claimed that the general people in the state “strongly supports” a ban on polygamy.
“There is a strong public support for ban on polygamy in Assam,” CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.
CM Sarma had said: “We have received a total of 149 suggestions in response to our public notice. Out of these, 146 suggestions are in favour of the bill, indicating strong public support. However, three organisations have expressed their opposition to the bill.”
The Assam chief minister also said that the practice of polygamy will end in the state by December 2023.
“By December (this year), polygamy will end in the state,” Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.
The Assam government had also formed a panel to study feasibility of an anti-polygamy law.
The experts’ committee submitted its report to Assam government, stating that the state’s legislature has the power to create law to ban polygamy.