NEW DELHI: Entrepreneur and Congress functionary Meriam L Hrangchal Monday challenged the constitutional validity of Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014, which was enacted by Congress govt headed by Lal Thanhawla, terming it “misogynistic and pro-Mizo men”.Hrangchal, daughter of former deputy CM Lalhmingthanga, told a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant that the law, which codified customary law, applied to any person belonging to a Mizo tribe and extended to marriages where the male member belonged to a Mizo tribe.The 2014 Act denies Mizo women, who marry outside the Mizo community, access to a comprehensive community-specific statutory framework governing marriage, property and inheritance, thereby infringing their right to equality, dignity and personal liberty under Articles 14 and 21, she said.The law marginalises the independent identity of Mizo women and refuses them the benefits under the 2014 Act which extends to marriage between a Mizo man and a non-Mizo woman but does not cover marriage between a Mizo woman and a non-Mizo man, she said, citing her own marital relationship.
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“The effect of such provisions is that Mizo women who marry non-Mizo men, and the children born out of such marriages, are excluded from the statutory regime, notwithstanding their subsisting connection to the Mizo community,” she said.The bench said the issue raised in her petition was important but asked why she was bypassing the high court. Her counsel said the community being small, she feared for her safety if her petition was heard by the Aizawl bench of Gauhati HC.The CJI-led bench understood her apprehension and requested the CJ of Gauhati HC to hear her petition in Guwahati without sending it to the Aizawl bench.
