 bill no  148  of  2018 the personal laws (amendment) bill, 2018 a billfurther to amend the divorce act, 1869, the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 1939, the special marriage act, 1954, the hindu marriage act, 1955 and the hindu adoptions and maintenance act, 1956 be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:— chapter  i preliminaryshort title and commencement chapter ii amendment to the divorce act, 18692 in the divorce act, 1869, in section 10, in sub-section (1), clause (iv) shall be omittedamendment of section 10 of act no 4 of 1869 chapter iii amendment to the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 19393 in the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 1939, in section 2, in ground (vi), the words "leprosy or" shall be omittedamendment of section 2 of act no 8 of 19395 chapter  iv amendment to the special marriage act, 19544 in the special marriage act, 1954, in section 27, in sub-section (1), clause (g) shall be omittedamendment of section 27 of act no 43 of 1954 chapter v10 amendment to the hindu marriage act, 19555 in the hindu marriage act, 1955, in section 13, in sub-section (1), clause (iv) shall be omittedamendment of section 13 of act no 25 of 1955 chapter vi amendment to the hindu adoptions and maintenance act, 1956156 in the hindu  adoptions and maintenance act, 1956 in section 18, in sub-section (2), clause (c) shall be omittedamendment of section 18 of act no 78 of 1956 statement of objects and reasonsleprosy patients were isolated and segregated from society as the leprosy was not curable and the society was hostile to them however, as a result of intensive healthcare and availability of modern medicine to cure the disease, the attitude of the society towards them began to change the discriminatory provisions contained in various statutes against the persons affected with leprosy were made prior to the medical advancements rendering leprosy a curable disease presently, leprosy is completely curable and can be treated with multidrug therapy however, old legislative provisions discriminating the persons affected by leprosy continued in various laws2 the united nations general assembly adopted a resolution in 2010 on the'elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members' india has signed and ratified the said resolution3 the national human rights commission in its meeting held on the 3rd january, 2008had, inter alia, recommended amendments in certain personal laws and other legislations further, the committee on petitions of rajya sabha in its 131st report on "petition praying for integration and empowerment of leprosy affected persons", had examined various statutes and desired that the concerned ministries and state governments would urgently consider amendments to such anachronistic and discriminatory provisions in the concerned legislations the 20th law commission of india in its 256th report titled "eliminating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy", also recommended for removing the discriminatory provisions in various statutes against the persons affected with leprosy4 recently, the supreme court has, inter alia, directed the union government as well as the state governments to take necessary steps for rehabilitation and integration of the leprosy affected persons into the mainstream including the steps to repeal the provisions where leprosy has been treated as a stigmatic disability5 having regard to the recommendations of the national human rights commission, the observations of the committee on petitions of the rajya sabha, recommendations of the law commission and the observations made by the supreme court, the government has decided to omit such discriminatory provisions from the personal laws6 therefore, the personal laws (amendment) bill, 2018 seeks to amend the divorce act, 1869 (4 of 1869), the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 1939 (8 of 1939), the special marriage act, 1954 (43 of 1954), the hindu marriage act, 1955 (25 of 1955) and the hindu adoptions and maintenance act, 1956 (78 of 1956) so as to omit the provisions contained therein that the discriminatory to the leprosy affected persons7 the aforesaid bill would ensure elimination of discrimination against the leprosy affected persons and provide for their integration into the mainstream of the society8 the bill seeks to achieve the above objectsnew delhi;the 2nd august, 2018ravi shankar prasad annexure extract from the divorce act, 1869 (4 of 1869)     iii-dissolution of marriage51 of 2001grounds for dissolution of marriage10 (1) any marriage solemnized, whether before or after the commencement of the indian divorce (amendment) act, 2001, may, on a petition presented to the district court either by the husband or the wife, be dissolved on the ground that since the solemnization of the marriage, the respondent—|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----|(iv) has, for a period of not less than two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition, been suffering from a virulent and incurable form of leprosy; or|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----| ________ extract from the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 1939 (8 of 1939)    2 a woman married under muslim law shall be entitled to obtain a decree for the dissolution of her marriage on any one of or more of the following grounds, namely:—grounds for decree for dissolution of marriage|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----|(vi) that the husband has been insane for a period of two years or is suffering from leprosy or virulent venereal disease;|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----| ________ extract from the special marriage  act, 1954 (43 of 1954)|         ||----------|| divorce |27 (1) subject to the provisions of this act and to the rules made thereunder, a petition for divorce may be presented to the district court either by the husband or the wife on the ground that the respondent—|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----|(g) has been suffering from leprosy, the disease not having been contacted from the petitioner; or|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----| extract from the hindu marriage act, 1955(25 of 1955)    divorce13 (1) any marriage solemnized, whether before or after the commencement of this act, may, on a petition presented by either the husband or the wife, be dissolved by a decree of divorce on the ground that the other party—    (iv) has been suffering from a virulent and incurable form of leprosy; or    ________extract from the hindu adoptions and maintenance act, 1956(78 of 1956)     chapter iii maintenance18 (1)    maintenance of wife(2) a hindu wife shall be entitled to live separately from her husband without forfeiting her claim to maintenance,—    (c) if he is suffering from a virulent form of leprosy;    ———— a billfurther to amend the divorce act, 1869, the dissolution of muslim marriages act, 1939, thespecial marriage act, 1954, the hindu marriage act, 1955 and the hindu adoptions and maintenance act, 1956————mgipmrnd—1534ls(s3)—08-08-2018