Assam govt extends term of Expert Committee meant to examine state's competence to enact law to end polygamy by 1 month

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

The state government stated that the term of the Expert Committee is extended for a period of one month from July 13, 2023 to August 12, 2023. The Assam government in May this year announced the constitution of a four-member committee to examine the legislative competence of state legislature to enact a law to end polygamy. The committee has been given a deadline of 60 days to submit its report.

The committee will scrutinize 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. Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said that anti polygamy law will be introduced in the next session of state assembly in September this year. He said that if the expert committee gives a report, legislation will be introduced in the next session of the Assembly or else it will be introduced in the January session.

Sarma said that Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be brought by Parliament. The Law Commission is looking into it. “We are in support of UCC, in Assam, we want to ban polygamy as well.

Pending the UCC we want to take out one segment of UCC banning polygamy. However, if UCC comes, we don't have to bring separate legislation for this will be merged in the UCC.If report takes time, then next winter session in January we will bring the legislation.”Congress is opposing UCC, Sarma said, “If any Congress leader has a daughter, will he or she marry her to someone who already has two wives. They take votes of Muslim women but don't want to give them back anything in return.