NA body passes Hindu Marriage Bill 2015

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Monday unanimously passed the Hindu Marriage Bill 2015 with few amendments.

The committee, which met here with Ch Mahmood Bashir Virk in the chair, was briefed by the officials of ministries of Law and Justice and Human Rights that the Bill was aimed at codifying the law to regulate marriages and termination thereof among Hindus families. The Act would be applicable to all citizens of Pakistan who were Hindu by religion.

The committee decided to consider the Hindu Marriage Bill 2015, which was presented by the government. The committee recommended that sub clause (2) of clause 1 of the Hindu Marriage Bill 2015 should be extended to the whole of Pakistan instead of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the assemblies of the two provinces had already passed resolutions in the Bill’s favour.

It also recommended following amendments in clauses 2 to 25.  The Clause 12 sub section (2)(C) that a spouse may also apply for termination of his/her marriage on the grounds that the other partner has been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of four years instead of three years. The Section 2 (d) completely deleted.

In Section 9, the committee directed to delete the line it shall no longer be obligatory for the petitioner to cohabit with the respondent .The Section 16 be amended as “When a Hindu marriage has been terminated by a decree of annulment and the time of appeal has expired or an appeal has been preferred but has been dismissed it shall be lawful for either party to the marriage so terminated to marry again after expiry of six months or in case of pregnant women after the delivery of the child from the final decision.”