Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami Announces Uniform Civil Code Implementation
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], July 12: Shatrugan Singh, the Chairman of the Rules and Implementation, released the report of the Expert Committee on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) of Uttarakhand today at the Circuit House Annexe, Dehradun.
While speaking to the media, Singh said, “The details of the UCC are given on the website http://ucc.uk.gov.in. You can read the report of the Expert Committee on the website.”
The Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, also spoke about the UCC, stating, “The UCC is a very big thing for our state. The people of the state had elected us for the same reason. I congratulate all the people of Uttarakhand on the implementation of the UCC. After the implementation, several complexities would be made easier.”
He further added, “People will be able to get justice in an easier manner. The report for UCC was put up earlier.”
Previously, on July 11, CM Dhami had participated in a felicitation ceremony in Delhi for implementing the UCC, which aims, among other things, to ensure the safety of youth in live-in relationships. He spoke about the provision of the registration regarding live-in relationships and said that the provision is made to ensure that the parents of the couple are aware of the relationship.
The government released the full report of 1700 pages of the Uttarakhand Civil Code today. The President of the country, Droupadi Murmu, approved the bill on March 11. CM Dhami had also announced the implementation of the UCC in the state in the month of October.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s government had constituted a five-member committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai to prepare the UCC draft on May 27, 2022. The Uttarakhand UCC bill contains the laws relating to marriage, divorce, succession, live-in relationships, and related matters.
Among the many proposals, the Uniform Civil Code Bill makes it compulsory for live-in relationships to be registered under the law. Once the proposed UCC Bill is in place, “live-in relationships” will have to get registered under the law within 1 month from the “date of entering into the relationship.” To live in a live-in relationship, adults will have to obtain consent from their parents.
The bill also imposes a complete ban on child marriage and introduces a uniform process for divorce. The Code provides equal rights to women of all religions in their ancestral property. As per the UCC Bill, the age for marriage will be 18 for women and 21 for men in all communities. Marriage registration is mandatory in all religions and marriages without registration will be invalid. No divorce petition will be allowed to be filed after one year of marriage.
