Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has asserted in the Assembly that his government will bring the Uniform Civil Code through the “front door”, while maintaining that the UCC does not deal with traditional practices and rituals.
Replying to a discussion on Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024′, Sarma claimed that the government was only trying to curb practices conducted by people with malicious intent, PTI reported.
“The UCC is in Uttarakhand now. The UCC deals with four points preventing underage marriage, banning polygamy, inheritance laws and registration of live-in relationships. The UCC does not deal with traditional rituals or practices,” the CM said.
The Uttarakhand Assembly had on February 7 passed a Bill that seeks to impose uniform rules on marriage, divorce, inheritances, and live-in relationships for all communities except the Scheduled Tribes.
Sarma had said last month that Assam will be the third state after Uttarakhand and Gujarat to introduce a Bill seeking the UCC and it would exempt the tribal communities from the ambit of the law.
“We will bring the UCC and we will bring it through the front door,” Sarma asserted, reacting to leader of opposition Debabrata Saikia’s question during the discussion if the proposed legislation on healing practices a tactic to bring in the UCC by the back door’.
The Bill, which was later passed by a voice vote, seeks to eradicate non-scientific healing practices and making magical healing’ by any person with sinister motive a cognisable and non-bailable offence, with imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to Rs1 lakh.
Sarma, referring to a ruckus created by opposition parties earlier in the House over the state Cabinet’s decision to repeal the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935, said he was saddened at the stance taken by them over such a “sensitive issue as child marriage”.
