The Pushkar Dhami government will table the legislation on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state Assembly today, becoming the first state in the country to do so. A UCC for Uttarakhand was a major election promise by Dhami in the 2022 Assembly polls.
The state cabinet passed the UCC draft at a meeting chaired by Dhami on Sunday and a special session of the Assembly has been convened for the purpose. The UCC will be presented in the House on Tuesday, followed by a debate on it.
Ahead of the start of the Assembly session, Dhami told reporters that the UCC would be "for the good of all sections" and there was no need to worry. "It will help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas, Sab ka Prayas, Sab ka Vishwas' and 'Ek Bharat, Sreshtha Bharat'," he told reporters.
"Not only Uttarakhand but the entire country was waiting for the UCC. The wait is coming to an end on Tuesday when it will be tabled in the state assembly. The whole country will be watching how the bill is brought in the House here and passed," Dhami said.
The UCC draft was prepared by a special committee formed in May 2022. The panel was headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, along with Justice Permod Kohli (retd), social activist Manu Gaur, former chief secretary Shatrughan Singh and VC Doon University Surekha Dangwal to prepare the UCC draft.
It took nearly two years and four extensions to prepare the draft. The panel received 2.33 lakh written suggestions online and held more than 70 meetings in which the members interacted with around 60,000 people in the course of preparing the draft.
The committee’s main responsibility was to examine the relevant laws regulating personal civil matters such as marriage, divorce, live-in relationships, property rights, succession, inheritance, adoption, maintenance, custody and guardianship for Uttarakhand’s residents.
Suggestions
The draft reportedly seeks gender equality and includes provisions for equal rights for women in inheritance in ancestral properties, equal rights to adopt and divorce, and a ban on polygamy regardless of religion.
The panel has also called for a common marriageable age for girls across all religions and enforcing similar grounds and procedures for divorce across all religions. It also includes registration of live-in relationships.
The panel has also weighed in on Islamic practices such as halala, iddat and some forms of triple talaq, added reports. There is also a provision for equal rights on adoption as per the rules defined in the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act. However, tribals have been kept out of its ambit.
