The latest attempt by the State government to bring changes in the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act 2012 has received more opposition.
After former Nongkrem MLA Ardent M. Basaiawmoit raised strong objections to the proposed amendment of the act, the Mait Shaphrang Movement (MSM) which spearheaded the campaign for compulsory registration of marriage in the State has also questioned the move.
“We strongly oppose the proposed amendments as they will completely dilute the basic objective of the principal act of 2012 which is meant to address the increasing number of abandonment of women with children without any child support, the outcome of unregistered marriages in our State,” MSM convener Michael N. Syiem said today.
Syiem also demanded that the principal act be retained and implemented as passed by the State Legislative Assembly in 2012.
It may be noted that the amendment proposed to delete the phrase “and such marriage certificate shall be required for all official purposes” at the end of Section 3 of the Marriage Act.
Accordingly, Section 2 (j) which defines “official purposes” is also proposed to be deleted, being redundant due to the proposed amendment of Section 3.
The amendment also proposed to delete from the preamble of the act the portion related to mandatory production of marriage certificate for all official purposes.
Further, it is proposed to amend Section 2 (g) by substituting “Inspector General of Registration, Meghalaya, ex-officio” in place of the existing portion “Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya in the Excise, Registration, Taxation and Stamps Department, ex-officio”.
This is aimed at giving authority to the Inspector General of Registration to register all marriages instead of the Secretary of Excise, Registration, Taxation and Stamps Department as it was before.
