What’s in Assam’s new anti-polygamy Bill?

Assam’s tribal population will be exempt from coming under the ambit of the Bill. It will not apply to areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution — the Bodoland Territorial Region and the hill districts of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong — and to people from the Scheduled Tribes.

The Bill proposes to make a person convicted under it ineligible for public employment funded or aided by the government of Assam, for any Assam government schemes, and for contesting in any elections in Assam.

Apart from the stringent penalties it proposes to introduce, the Bill also includes a provision for financial compensation to women who are “victims” of polygamous marriages, and says that the state government will designate an authority for considering compensation to such women.

Cognizable criminal offence

The Bill proposes to make polygamy a cognizable criminal offence. Under the Bill, polygamy entails entering a marriage if someone already has a living spouse, if not legally separated from another spouse, or if in a marriage not yet dissolved or annulled by decree of divorce and is pending appeal.

The Bill proposes to make marriage under such conditions punishable with imprisonment up to seven years and a fine. It further proposes that if the offence is accompanied by “concealment of the former marriage from the person with whom subsequent marriage is contracted”, the imprisonment should be for up to 10 years.

It proposes that repeat offences be punishable with double the punishment.

It also proposes to bring the family or guardians of the parties and those solemnising such marriages under the ambit of the Bill. It proposes two years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1.50 lakh for “any priest or qazi knowingly and willingly solemnising any marriage contrary” to the provisions of the Bill. For “gaonbura, village head, qazi, parents or the legal guardians of the contracting party of the polygamous marriage”, who “dishonestly or fraudulently hides and intentionally takes part in the performance or solemnisation of polygamous marriage”, the Bill proposes imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

The Bill also contains a special provision that makes any person who had been a resident of Assam before the Act and enters into a polygamous marriage outside Assam after the Act liable for punishment. This will also apply to any person who was not ordinarily a resident of Assam before the Act and performed a polygamous marriage within Assam subsequently.