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Pakistan’s Hindu Marriage Bill vs India’s Hindu Marriage Act: Which one is more progressive

Pakistan's law prohibits bigamy under certain circumstances if the wife is alive, while in India marrying again if the partner is alive is a punishable offense in most cases.

A senate committee in Pakistan on Monday approved a bill that would allow Hindus in the predominantly Muslim country to legally marry, in a move seen as a boost for minority rights in the Islamic country.

The Hindu Marriage Bill was passed by the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, nearly four months after it was passed by the country’s lower house. The bill will now be tabled in the Senate, the upper house of Pakistan’s bicameral legislature.

Once enacted into law, the Hindu Marriage Bill will allow Hindus to enjoy similar marriage rights as they enjoy in India, and which have been denied to Pakistan’s two million Hindus since partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

According to a news report, the passing of the bill by the senate committee was met with rapturous thumping of desks from all those present in the room in the Parliament House where the bill was being discussed.

Here are some salient features of Pakistan’s Hindu Marriage Bill, as reported by news media outlets:

On the other hand, India’s longstanding Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 says

  1. the first husband or wife is dead, or
  2. the first marriage has been voided by the court
  3. the partner hasn’t been in touch for a period of seven years

Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a Hindu parliamentarian in the lower house reportedly reacted,

“Today, we are proud to be Hindu Pakistanis after the approval of the bill. Hindus will now be able to get registered their marriages and also apply for divorce under family laws.”