Guwahati, July 18: The Assam government has extended the term of the expert committee, formed to examine the legislative competence of state legislature to enact a law to end polygamy, by a month.
According to official sources, the term extension of the panel takes effect from July 13, 2023 to August 12, 2023.
Earlier in March this year, a four-member expert committee, headed by Justice (Retired) Rumi Phookan, was constituted to examine whether the state legislature is empowered to prohibit polygamy in the state.
The panel was asked to submit its report within two months.
Other members of the committee are Assam advocate general Debajit Saikia, additional advocate general Nalin Kohli and senior advocate Nekibur Zaman.
The role of the committee will be to scrutinise the provisions of 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 committee would, during its term, engage in extensive discussions with all stakeholders, including legal experts, to arrive at a well-informed decision.
Notably, polygamy is generally prohibited in all religious communities in India except the Muslim community. Practising polygamy is an offence punishable under Sections 494 and 495 of the IPC except for the Muslim community wherein Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 governs the law pertaining to marriage which allows polygamy.
“In Assam, polygamy is almost non-existent among the educated people and the indigenous Muslims of the state. However, polygamy is to a great extent prevalent in parts of Barak Valley and in areas such as Hojai and Jamunamukh,” Assam chief minister had informed mediapersons in March this year.
He further said that along with the crackdown on child marriage in the state, during which we had also found some persons, aged over 60-65 years marrying young girls, banning polygamy was also important.
“We want to ban both formal polygamy and informal polygamy (where a person has more than one spouse who is not legally married). So, this committee will suggest ways to curb formal and informal polygamy,” Sarma had said.