NA committee accepts ‘The Hindu Marriage Bill, 2015’

Islamabad

Taking a significant step forward in the approval of Pakistan’s first ever legislation on Hindu marriages, National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice unanimously accepted the ‘The Hindu Marriage Bill, 2015’ on Monday.

The legislation is a long standing demand of Hindu community and addresses rules and regulation to oversee Hindu marriages and divorces. For past 67 years, Hindu marriages and divorces are not registered. Members of Hindu community, especially women, face a lot of problems in obtaining computerised national identity cards, passports, inheritance or dissolution of marriages.

As per new legislation, a Hindu marriage will be solemnised in accordance with customs, rites, rituals and ceremonies and registration will take place within 15 days of marriage. The government will notify or appoint the registrar in a territory of a district convenient for Hindu population.

Any Hindu marriage could be declared voidable by a decree of nullity on the grounds that the consent of the petitioner was obtained by force, coercion or fraud, the parties are in prohibited relationship or have a spouse living at the time of marriage, the respondent was pregnant by some person other than the petitioner or the marriage has not been consummated owing to impotence of the respondent. The minimum age of marriage proposed in the bill is 18 years.

The marriage could be terminated if the petitioner was treated with cruelty, or one party is deserted for not less than two years, or the other party ceased to be a Hindu and also in the case of mental disorder, one party could seek termination.

Under this law, wife can go to court for termination of marriage if the husband has neglected her or has failed to provide her maintenance for a period of two years, if a husband is sentenced to imprisonment for the period of four years or if her marriage is solemnised before she attained the age of 18.

The law also has clauses for financial security of wife and children, alternate relief in termination of marriage proceedings, termination of marriage by mutual consent, remarriage, punishment of bigamy and penalties for violating the provisions of the Act.

The committee met under the chairpersonship of MNA of Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk and had a thorough discussion on the government bill ‘The Hindu Marriage Bill’ presented in the National Assembly in 2015. MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, MNA Dr Darshan and MNA Lal Chand Malhi were also present in the meeting on special invitation to assist the committee in passage of the bill.

The Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Human Rights briefed committee members that the objective of Hindu Marriage Bill is to codify the law for regulating the marriages and termination of marriages among Hindus family. The Act will be applicable to all citizen of Pakistan who is Hindu by religion in any of its form.

The committee was informed that after 18 Amendment, the law will be implemented only in the provinces where the Provincial Assembly has passed resolution in the favour of the Act. Till now, only Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assemblies have passed the resolution.

The committee members had a heated debate on the clause that allows termination of marriage in case of conversion to any other religion. The representatives of Hindu community especially Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani requested the committee to remove the clause as he thought that it could be misused and would facilitate forced conversions. He said that wife or husband should first apply in court to terminate the marriage on other grounds and should convert only after the court’s decision on termination of marriage.

The committee members including Eng. Ali Muhammad Khan Advocate, Moulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Shagufta Jumani, Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha and Aisha Syed opposed the suggestion and said that law could not bind anyone from not changing the religion. Director General Ministry of Human Rights Muhammad Hassan Mangi informed the committee members that law against forced conversions is also under formulation which will address the concerns of the Hindu community on this issue. At the end, the committee decided to retain the clause.

Another opposition to the minimum marriage age came from Moulana Muhammad Khan Sherani. He suggested decreasing the minimum marriage age to 16 years on the basis of the biological age of puberty. The objection was strongly resisted by the representatives of Hindu community. As a result, no change was approved in the minimum marriage age.

Other MNAs who attended the meeting included Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, Kiran Haider, Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Sherazi, Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar.