Assam to introduce a bill to ban polygamy in the state soon

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, announced that the state’s government intends to outlaw polygamy immediately and that a bill will be filed during the ensuing Assembly session. The practice or tradition of having multiple wives or husbands concurrently, polygamy, has emerged as a recurrent theme in the ongoing debates in India over the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

The initiative was considered as an effort by the state to move closer to a Uniform Civil Code, and the Assam government had constituted an expert group to investigate the legal aspects of implementation. There is no report yet.

“We want to introduce the bill in the upcoming Assembly section in September. If, for some reason, we can’t do it, then we will do it in the January Assembly session,” said the Chief Minister. He further added, “In Assam, we want to ban polygamy immediately. However, if UCC comes, we don’t have to take action, as it will merge with UCC.”

Sarma had initially declared in May that Assam will take “legislative action” to outlaw the practise of polygamy. The state government established a committee under the leadership of retired judge Rumi Phukan of the Gauhati High Court to “examine legislative competence of (the) state legislature to enact a law to end polygamy” as a first step in this direction.

Sarma stated when he first proposed the prohibition on polygamy that during the nationwide campaign against child marriage earlier this year, the authorities discovered that many males “married multiple times,” and frequently wedded young girls. Therefore, he added, “The prohibition of polygamy is also important; the crackdown against child marriage is not the only solution.”