The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami presented the UCC bill in the legislative assembly. The Uttarakhand UCC Bill proposes, a common law on marriage, divorce, land, property, and inheritance for all citizens irrespective of their religion in the state, but it excludes the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill aims to establish uniform civil laws applicable to all communities within the state. However, the Muslim section of the state is not happy with this bill, and a few people also protested in Dehradun against the bill.
Now Uttarakhand became the first state in India to imply UCC. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami termed it as a “historic moment” in the country.
7 Things Everyone Should Know About UCC
- The key feature of the 2024 Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand is the compulsory registration requirement for live-in relationships. This mandate applies not only to residents of Uttarakhand engaged in live-in relationships within the state but also to those involved in such relationships outside Uttarakhand, who must provide a statement to the state registrar.
- Couples engaged in a live-in relationship for over a month and failing to furnish the required statement may face penalties, including imprisonment for up to three months, a fine of up to Rs 10,000, or both.
- Children born from live-in relationships will be recognized as legitimate, and women abandoned by their partners will be eligible for maintenance.
- Under the third condition outlined in Section 4 concerning marriage, the minimum age for marriage remains unchanged: 21 for men and 18 for women.
- The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand additionally aims to prohibit practices such as ‘halala’ and ‘iddat’, which are Islamic rituals that women are traditionally required to undergo following divorce or the death of their husbands.
- Section 4 of the Bill outlines five conditions for marriage, stipulating that a marriage may proceed between a man or a woman if these conditions are met. The initial condition states, “neither party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage,” thereby prohibiting bigamy or polygamy.
- The Bill maintains the “custom” exception from the Hindu Marriage Act concerning married parties within the “degrees of prohibited relationships.” Individuals are considered to be within the “degrees of prohibited relationship” if they share a common ancestry or if they are the wife/husband of a common ancestor.