Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in the Assembly on Monday that his government will bring in the Uniform Civil Code through the “front door”, while also adding that the UCC does not pertain to traditional practices and rituals.
Responding to the discussion on ‘Assam Remedies (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024’, Sarma claimed that the government is only trying to curb the practices carried out by persons with malicious intentions.
The CM said, “UCC is now in Uttarakhand. UCC deals with four points – preventing underage marriage, ban on polygamy, inheritance law and registration of live-in relationships. UCC does not deal with traditional customs or practices “
The Uttarakhand Assembly had passed a bill on February 7 that provides for uniform rules on marriage, divorce, inheritance and live-in relationships for all communities except Scheduled Tribes.
Sarma had last month said that after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, Assam would be the third state to introduce a bill demanding UCC and it would exempt tribal communities from the ambit of the law.
Responding to opposition leader Debabrata Saikia’s question during the discussion, Sarma said, “We will bring UCC and we will bring it from the front door.” Is the proposed law on treatment a strategy to bring in UCC through the backdoor? ,
The Bill, which was later passed by voice vote, provides for eliminating non-scientific healing practices and making ‘magical healing’ by any person with sinister intentions a cognizable and non-bailable offence, punishable with imprisonment up to five years. There can be imprisonment and fine. Up to one lakh rupees.
Referring to the uproar created by the opposition parties in the House over the state cabinet’s decision to repeal the Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act, 1935, Sarma said he was saddened by their stand on a sensitive issue like child marriage. ,
“Should Congress, AIUDF support marriage of five-six year old children? Can we not be unanimous in legalizing the marriage of only girls above 18 years of age and boys above 21 years of age? “Laws promoting child marriage should be banned,” the CM claimed.
The 1935 Act included provisions allowing marriage registration even if the bride and groom had not reached the legal age of 18 and 21, as required by law.
On the opposition’s objections to the ‘Assam Remedies (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024’, Sarma said a similar law already existed in the form of the Centre’s ‘The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954’ .
He said, “It was passed when late Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. We have not taken the extremist approach of Nehru and banned everything like amulets, mantras and armours.”
The CM claimed that the state government has refrained from implementing the Central Act as it would come in the way of traditional systems, especially prevalent among the tribal communities of the state.
“The simple design of our bill is not to prevent anyone from their traditional practices, but we prevent anything that is done with ulterior motives,” he said.
Congress and AIUDF, which had moved amendments to the bill to define bad practices and whether it would disturb traditional systems, agreed to withdraw their amendments after the Chief Minister’s reply.
However, independent MLA Akhil Gogoi, who had also moved an amendment to the bill, did not withdraw his objection that the definition of ‘bad practice’ was not specifically mentioned in the bill.
