Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-07-19

Amendment to the Civil Procedure Code

- Provisions have been made by Article 12 of the Constitution to the effect that no citizen should be discriminated on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion or place of birth or any one of such grounds. However, since the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act which governs marriage and divorce of Muslims, includes certain provisions which are discriminatory for women, various Women's Organizations and scholars on Muslim law belonging to Muslim community have pointed out the need of removing such provisions from the law. Therefore, it has been observed that it would be appropriate to provide the Muslim community with optional opportunities to have their marriages and divorces governed under the general law which presently governs the marriages and divorces of the citizens of Sri Lanka. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Justice to amend the Civil Procedure Code and the procedure relating to Matrimonial actions in the Civil Procedure Code, enabling persons professing Islam to be governed under the said Ordinance, if they are expected to get married under the Marriage Registration Ordinance, was approved by the Cabinet.