Mizoram Law Minister Lalsawta today said the newly-enacted Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014 will soon be in force in the state and will be notified within a few days.
In a meeting held with the Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC), a conglomerate of leaders of 14 major churches in the state, Lalsawta said after this meeting, the issue of notification will be sped up.
He said the Act automatically gave official recognition to all church priests who were earlier authorised to issue marriage licences as licensed officers.
"While marriages solemnised before were exclusively church affairs, enforcement of the Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014 will make marriages a joint affair of both the government and the church," the minister said.
Any marriage should be registered with the Marriage Registrar concerned within 30 days from the wedding, he said.
The minister was accompanied by Law Secretary P Singthanga and other top officials of the department while the MKHC was represented by its chairman Rev K Lalhmuchhuaka of the Presbyterian Church and Rev R Lalrinsanga of the United Pentecostal Church (North East India).
The Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014, unanimously passed by the state legislature on November 12 was lauded by women bodies as an instrument to emancipate womenfolk reeling under the yoke of the Mizo Customary law.
Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or Mizo Women's Federation and All Mizo Women Federation (AMWF) hailed the new legislation which they said would drastically decrease divorce rate and number of broken families.
They also said women who could never inherit properties in the event of divorce were now entitled to inherit properties up to 50 per cent under the new law.
