Punjab Assembly pass amendments in five laws including Child Marriage Restraint Act

Lahore: The Punjab Assembly today passed amendments in five laws including Child Marriage Restraint Act,1929, Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961, Family Courts Act 1964, Partition of Immovable Property Act 2012 and Land Revenue Act 1967 which will come into force at once.

Child Marriage Restraint Act: The existing punishment for any person concerned with a child marriage under the Child Marriage Restraint Act is up to one month or fine up to one thousand rupees or both. To rub the menace of child marriages prevalent in the country and to save the women from exploitation on that account, the punishment has been enhanced up to six months with a fine of rupees fifty thousand. Moreover, punishment has also been enhanced for the Nikah registrar who solemnizes a child marriage. An offence under the act shall be tried summarily on a complaint of the union council or any other person prescribed by the government.

Muslim Family Laws Ordinance: Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 does not provide any mandatory provision regarding filling of all the entries in Nikahnama on instructions of the bride and bridegroom. It has been observed that in numerous cases non-filling of the entries of Nikahnama has adversely exploited rights of the brides, particularly, in the matter of family disputes. In order to ensure that all entries of the Nikahnama shall be properly filled by the Nikah Registrar or a person who solemnizes a Nikah, it is necessary to insert mandatory provisions in the law to this effect. Moreover, there is very low rate of fine i.e. Rs.5,000/- in case a husband contracts second marriage without following the procedure provided in section 6 of the Ordinance. In order to discourage the practice of contracting second marriage in violation of the law, it is necessary to enhance the fine. The ordinance only empowers the arbitration council to empower grant of maintenance to the wife, whereas in order to protect the rights of children, it is imperative that enabling provision may be inserted to extend the power of granting maintenance to children as well.

Family Courts Act 1964: Given the present position of prolonged litigation in the family courts with respect to adjudication of suits filed in the matters pertaining to dissolution of marriage (including khula), dower, maintenance, restitution of conjugal rights, custody of children (and the visitation rights of parents to meet them), guardianship, jactitation of marriage, dowry and personal property and belonging of wife, the law has been amended in order to resolve the family disputes in a more expeditious manner. The provisions proposed in the bills encompass the above family disputes and provide enhanced powers to the family courts to resolve the issues rapidly and protect the rights of a wife and children, efficiently.

Partition of Immovable Property Act 2012: Subsection (3) of section 9 of the Punjab Partition of Immovable Property Act 2012 provides for appointment of a referee for partition of the joint property on the request of one of the co-owners in suit for partition of an immovable property. The provision has been omitted so as to ensure that the referee may only be appointed in event of consent of all the co-owners. This will ensure early disposal of partition cases.

Land Revenue Act 1967: Section 24 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1967 provides for mode of service of summons issued by a Revenue Officer and the mode includes service personally on the person to whom the summons is addressed, his authorized agent or an adult male member of his family. The relevant amendment aims at allowing the summons to be served on any adult member of the family. An amendment for inclusion of electronic means as valid modes of serving the summons has also been proposed to make use of electronic devices available or made available in future. Further, section 141 of the act has been proposed to be amended so that the revenue officer is bound to decide the question regarding title of the property himself instead of requiring a party to file civil suit. These changes will expedite disposal of partition cases by the Revenue Officers.