Guwahati: Assam is planning to ban polygamy immediately and a bill will be introduced in the upcoming Assembly session.
“We want to introduce the bill in the upcoming Assembly session in September. If, for some reason, we can’t do it, then we will do it in the January Assembly session,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.
“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,” he added.
Biswa Sarma had said earlier the state will seek to ban polygamy through consensus.
“We want to make this a consensus-building process rather than some kind of a provocation,” Biswa Sarma stated two months ago.
The practice or custom of having more than one spouse at the same time, polygamy has become a recurring topic in discussions about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India.
Polygamy is illegal under Indian Penal Code, but Muslim men are allowed to have up to four wives under sharia Islamic law. Polygamy also exists in many tribal communities.
Assam government had formed an expert committee to explore legal aspects in implementing the move. The report is pending.
