Parliamentarian Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thera presented a Bill to repeal the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) to the House today (08).

This was tabled as a Private Members’ Bill to repeal the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act No 13 of 1951.

Parliament convened at 1.00 p.m. today (8), the second day of the adjournment debate on the government policy statement presented by the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Rathana Thera also concurrently presented a Private member’s Bill to amend the Marriage (General) Ordinance No 19 of 1907. It changes the name of the Marriage (General) Ordinance No. 19 of 1907, and the preamble of the Principle enactment is amended by the deletion of the words “other than the marriages of Muslims”.

In 2009, a committee, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Saleem Marsoof, was appointed to amend the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. This committee has been consulting various stakeholders for a period of nine years and the final report inclusive of all the recommendations was released in 2018. Despite the 14 recommendations agreed upon by Muslim parliamentary representatives in July 2019, the implementation of the recommendations was put on hold.

One of the most controversial aspects of the current Muslim marriage and divorce law is that it does not specify the minimum age for marriage of Muslim women. Article 23 of this Act states that a girl under the age of 12 may marry even if she has the consent of a Muslim quasi-court judge.

In the meantime, UNP MP Dr. Thusitha Wijemanne tabled a Private Member Bill to declare the minimum age for marriage in Sri Lanka as 18 years for all communities.

This Bill was presented with the intention of preventing child marriages in the country.