The Assam government has constituted a three-member committee to draft the proposed anti-polygamy law. The committee has been constituted with Advocate General, Legal Remembrancer and Director General of Police.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state government had earlier constituted a committee to examine the “legislative competence of the state legislature” to enact a law to end polygamy. “We first wanted to check if the state government has the right to ban polygamy. We had formed a committee with retired Gauhati High Court judge Justice Rumi Phookan as its chairperson. The committee said the government has the right,” Sarma said.

The state government had also sought the views of the public on the proposed anti-polygamy law. Altogether 149 individuals and organisations responded and of them, 146 supported it while the remaining three objected to it. “Ahead of the last Assembly elections, we had promised to bring in a law against love jihad. Covering all these (polygamy and love jihad), we marched ahead to bring the law. We have now formed another committee and assigned it to draft the proposed anti-polygamy law,” the CM said.