Assam Government constitutes special committee to draft bill on banning polygamy

A committee has been constituted to draft appropriate legislation for banning polygamy and other related issues such as tackling inter-religious marriage by fake identity, the role of Kazi in child marriage etc.in the state. Advocate general of Assam Debojit Saikia will be the chairman of the committee and DGP GP Singh, senior additional advocate general Nalin Kolhi, Romen Baruah, secretary judicial department and Biswajit Pegu IAS, secretary of home and political department will be its members. The committee will submit its draft legislation within 45 days. The Assam government is likely to introduce a bill in the state assembly in December to ban polygamy and legislation to tackle inter-religious marriage by false identity which is commonly known as ‘love jihad’.

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said that by December 2023 the state will witness the end of polygamy. The draft bill to ban polygamy in the state is under preparation and by December Assam will see the end of polygamy.

Earlier the CM said that Assam Police must develop SoPs (Standard Operating Procedure) to help it to probe ‘love jihad’, as the government is contemplating to provide legislative backing to ensure prosecution of accused held for polygamy and child marriages and inter religion marriage by false identity. He said in the wake of ‘love-jihad’, the police forces must be empowered with specific operating procedures to deal with the menace.

The Chief Minister said that crime against women and children in the state has come down drastically. He, however, said that high profile cases will be tried in special courts and special public prosecutors will be deployed and charge sheets will be filed in stipulated periods for serving as a deterrent to future crimes. It should be mentioned that Assam has seen numbers of Love Jihad cases in the recent past where Muslim men pose as Hindu traped Hindu girls. Recently one incident jolted the entire state when a victim of love jihad, a Hindu girl and her parents were brutally killed by a Muslim man in Golaghat town in upper Assam.