Silchar, Nov. 14: The Mizoram Assembly has passed the Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Bill, 2014, conferring marital rights to women in the state.

Introducing the bill two days ago in the Assembly, law minister Lalsawta expressed his happiness at the passage of the legislation. He said the courts would from now on try the cases on divorce and on how a wife’s demand of the property inheritance in the family could be sorted out.

In the age-old Mizo Customary Law, a wife does not have any right over the mutually owned property in a family, as the husbands enjoys his primitive sanctions under the customary laws of divorcing his wife just by uttering three words “Ka ma che”, meaning “I divorce you”.

Lalswata said the new bill would provide a guarantee that a man can only divorce his wife from now on, following their wedding in the churches, if it is granted by a court, and then his wife after the separation could now have a share over their acquired property along with her own personal property brought at the time of their wedding.

The new law clearly now spells out the right to a woman to file a lawsuit in the court for divorce on any justified ground. The bill has come about after modifying the Mizo Divorce Ordinance (MDO), which was promulgated in the state in October 2008.

The confederation of the Mizo women’s society, the Mizoram Hmeichhe Insuikhawm Pawl (MHIP), which first raised the issue of ending the gender discrimination at the time of the divorce, had hailed the new divorce law.

The former president of the MHIP, B. Sangkhumi, today exulted over the passage of the bill. The lone woman MLA in Mizoram Assembly, Vanlalhinpuii Chawngthu, has thanked chief minister Lal Thanhawla for initiating the reforms in the customary laws governing the Mizo marriage system.

Resolution

The Mizoram Assembly today unanimously passed a Private Member’s Resolution calling for an end to discrimination and violence against people from the Northeast.

The resolution, which could be a first of-its kind move involving state Assemblies from the region, was introduced by Lalruatkima, an Opposition Mizo National Front MLA in the 40-member House. Another Opposition MLA, K. Beichhua, seconded the resolution.

Lal Thanhawla is Mizoram chief minister.

The final resolution, passed after over an hour of deliberations, stated, “The House solemnly regrets the discrimination and violence against people from the northeastern region in various parts of the country, which has resulted in loss of some innocent lives in some cases and offers condolences to the aggrieved families. The House desires that henceforth such discrimination and violence against people from the region will not take place.”

The concern has only grown with the death of student Nido Tania of Arunachal Pradesh earlier this year. He was fatally assaulted by a group of people after an alteraction in Delhi.