Uttarakhand will be implementing the Uniform Civil Code on Monday, making it the first state in independent India to put into effect such a law.
According to the state’s chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the government has completed all preparations to implement the law, including getting approval of the rules for the implementation of the Act and training of officials concerned. The rationale given for the law is that it will bring about ‘uniformity in the society and ensure equal rights and responsibilities for all citizens.’
"UCC is just an offering made by our state in the great 'yagya' being performed by the Prime Minister to make the country a developed, organised, harmonious and self-reliant nation," PTI quoted Dhami as saying in a statement.
The BJP had made a promise to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand in the run-up to the 2022 assembly polls.These polls saw the party storming to power for a second consecutive term, something never done by any other party in the state since its creation in 2000.
According to CM Dhami, the historic mandate was because of the party's commitment to passing the UCC.
The Uniform Civil Code journey in Uttarakhand
The Uttarakhand state cabinet cleared a proposal to form an expert panel on the Uniform Civil Code in March 2022 in the first cabinet meeting after winning the assembly elections. The panel, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, was constituted on May 27, 2022 to prepare the draft of the UCC.
{{/usCountry}}The Uttarakhand state cabinet cleared a proposal to form an expert panel on the Uniform Civil Code in March 2022 in the first cabinet meeting after winning the assembly elections. The panel, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, was constituted on May 27, 2022 to prepare the draft of the UCC.
{{/usCountry}}The Desai committee submitted a comprehensive draft in four volumes, prepared after one and a half years of dialogue with different sections of the state's population. It was sent to the state on February 2, 2024 and just a few days later, the Uttarakhand assembly passed the UCC bill. President Droupadi Murmu gave it her assent in March 2024, nearly two years after the initial proposal.
Another expert committee was at work after that, headed by former chief secretary Shatrughna Singh. It was formed to frame the rules and regulations for the implementation of the Act. The Sinha committee submitted its report to the state government late last year.
The state cabinet gave its approval recently and authorised the chief minister to decide a date for its implementation. Dhami decided the date to be January 27, 2025, a day after the country celebrated its 76th Republic Day.
What is in the Uttarakhand UCC?
The Uniform Civil Code Act of Uttarakhand will govern and regulate the laws relating to marriage and divorce, succession, live-in relationships and related matters.
It sets equal marriageable age for men and women, grounds of divorce and procedures across all religions, and bans polygamy and 'halala'.
Doon University Vice Chancellor Surekha Dangwal, who was part of the panel that drafted the UCC and was among those who framed the rules for its implementation, described to PTI the provisions aimed at bringing about gender parity in matters of marriage, divorce and succession, treating all children as legitimate including those born of void or voidable marriages, simplifying the process of preparing a will and regulating live-in relationships as the most outstanding in the UCC. She termed gender parity across all religions as the spirit of UCC.
According to Duggal, the UCC makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory. She also said that the government has created facilities to help people register their marriages online so that they do not have to run around government offices for it.
"Another remarkable feature of the UCC is that it treats all children as legitimate. We have in fact totally done away with the term illegitimate in the context of children," she said. The UCC also makes a special provision for defence personnel called "privileged will" which can be made both in writing or by word of mouth.
Any soldier or air force personnel engaged in an expedition or actual warfare or a mariner at sea can make a privileged will for which rules have been kept flexible.
(With PTI inputs)