Kathmandu, 11 August: Some lawmakers have argued in the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the parliament on Sunday that punishing polygamy is against prevailing traditions, culture and ethnic practices.
There was a heated debate about polygamy when lawmakers Chhakka Bahadur Lama and Bijay Subba pointed that polyandry is still practiced in some ethnicity and regions, and opined that ethnic traditions should also be considered while formulating laws.
Members of the committee Yashoda Gurung Subedi, Rekha Sharma and the majority of lawmakers in the committee blasted the practice of polyandry and argued that the prevailing laws should be honored.
Subba claimed that the Constitution was drafted in accordance to Hindu practices, and accused it of ignoring the practices and culture of the religion of other ethnicity. “What would you do if they come to register three husbands and a wife? Should the prevailing practices in society not be addressed by the law?” he fumed. “One lawmaker stated that things prohibited by the Constitution should not be practiced. This has been drafted on the basis of Hindu scriptures. This does not recognize many things including Lama, Subba, Raute and others.”
Lawmaker Yashoda Gurung Subedi argued that one cannot demand recognition of polygamy, either in the form of polyandry or polygyny, as the criminal code has already considered polygamy as a crime and it annuls multiple marriages. Subba asked how the law can punish someone for merely following ethnic traditions and practices when the Constitution allows all the ethnicity to follow their traditions and practices.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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