Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that his government would implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the northeastern state. He said the tribal community will be exempted from the UCC.
The bill would be introduced in the state assembly this year after it is implemented by the Uttarakhand and the Gujarat governments, Sarma added.
“Uttarakhand and Gujarat will bring UCC first, and Assam will follow them with some new additions to those bills, which will be an Assam model,” Sarma told journalists in Guwahati while addressing a press conference.
“I am waiting to see the UCC bill of Uttarakhand, and once that is done we will bring the same legislation, but since we are working against child marriages and polygamy, there will be some innovation to it. In Assam, the tribal community will be exempted from the ambit of UCC,” he added.
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Sarma said that public consultation on the UCC bill could take place in the next two to three months, and soon after, it would be introduced in the Assam assembly.
{{/usCountry}}Sarma said that public consultation on the UCC bill could take place in the next two to three months, and soon after, it would be introduced in the Assam assembly.
{{/usCountry}}“All will depend on the Uttarakhand and Gujarat bills, but Assam will definitely be the third state (to implement UCC),” Sarma said.
A Uniform Civil Code or UCC is conceptualised as a set of laws that govern personal matters, including marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, and succession, for all citizens regardless of their religion. It aims to replace the existing diverse personal laws that vary based on religious affiliations.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed the UCC hinting that the Union government may prioritise the long-pending subject ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.