Under pressure, KCR puts on hold bill to regulate Arab marriages
to deal with Arab men who try to marry local girls illegally. The qazis are supposed to register all such marriages with the Wakf Board, but that does not happen in these cases.
The Law Department, after getting a nod from the Ministry of External Affairs ( MEA), prepared a draft law to check unauthorised Arab marriages with Indian girls. According to a senior Telangana Law Department official, the draft Bill has been readied with stringent provisions like compulsory registration of all Arab men who want to marry Indian girls.
The draft law has provisions such as checking the age and the health of the grooms, apart from seeking proof of their financial status and residential details with the help of Indian consulates in the Arab countries. The draft law also re- quires the groom to deposit a minimum of Rs 10 lakh with the Wakf Board. The draft Bill has stipulated that minors cannot be married off and that the age difference between the groom and the bride should not be more than 20 years.
When contents of the draft were circulated among Muslim leaders and religious groups, there was a mixed response. While some welcomed the provisions, religious groups objected to the Bill by saying that it was trying to regulate matters pertaining to Muslim personal laws. Moreover, they cited the overall poverty of the parents of local Muslim girls as a reason why all Arab marriages should not be banned.
Two major meetings that took place in the city in the last one week made the government backtrack on the Arab marriages regulation Bill. First was a gathering of Islamic scholars and ex- perts, including Jamat Ul Ulema’s Mufti Abdul Mughni Mazarari and Maulana Syed Tariq Quadri, a former member of Andhra Pradesh Minorities Commission. The meeting resolved to oppose the law being made by the government, apparently because such a law would hurt the image of Indian Muslims among Muslims globally, and affect the prospects of local girls getting married to grooms abroad. Speakers at the meeting talked of the weak economic conditions of the parents who wanted to marry off their girls to Arab men. But the meeting also decided to self-regulate all illegal and exploitative marriages with Arab men and ensure that underage girls were not married off. The religious leaders, while calling for an end to social evils such as dowry among Muslims—so that governments would not need to interfere in such matters—also thanked the Chief Minister for showing an interest in curbing exploitative Arab marriages.
The other meeting was the one where KCR interacted with Muslim leaders from Hyderabad, including Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali and All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimneen MP Asaduddin Owaisi, among others. At this meeting, KCR proposed several welfare and developmental measures like a separate IT corridor for Muslims on the city’s outskirts, 10% quota in housing, etc.
Representatives of around half a dozen Muslim religious organisations have welcomed the proposals and thanked the Chief Minister, but urged him not to rush through the Bill. According to sources close to the Deputy Chief Minister, KCR has agreed to put on hold the law if the community is ready to check illegal marriages and the exploitation of poor Muslim girls.