On Tuesday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami entered the Parliament holding a copy of the Indian Constitution to table the Uniform Civil Code Bill.
Supporters of the bill hailed the occasion as “historic” with #UttarakhandCreatesHistory trending on social media. The finance ministers welcomed the submission of the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, 2024 by banging the tables and shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, “Vande Mataram” and “Jai Shri Ram”.
If passed, the 192-page bill will be the first such legislation to be implemented by a state after independence.
The bill proposes a common law on marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance applicable to all citizens of Uttarakhand irrespective of their religious beliefs, except Scheduled Tribes. It provides for registration of a common-law relationship in the state and failure to do so within one month is punishable by three months’ imprisonment. Any children born from this relationship will be considered legitimate.
Here are the highlights of the bill:
Polygamy is prohibited
Polygamy and polyandry are prohibited under Section 4(i) of the Act. This section defines who can get married, stating: “Neither spouse is living with a spouse at the time of the marriage”.
Sub-section (iii) above fixes the age of marriage as 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys.
It also prohibits marriage to individuals whose relationships are mentioned in the exceptions list. This includes people who share a common ancestor, or a relationship between a man and his widowed daughter-in-law.
halala ban
Article 30 of the UCC Act prohibits the following practices: halala, or marry and divorce a second man before remarrying the first husband. Article 30(ii) provides: “The right to remarry includes the right to unconditionally remarry a divorced spouse, such as marrying a third person before remarriage.”
tribal immunity
Section 2 of the Act grants exemptions to tribes. “Nothing in this Code shall apply to any member of a Scheduled Tribe within the meaning of Article 366(25) read with Article 142 of the Constitution of India and any person or persons whose customary rights are protected by Part XXI. Group. Constitution of India”.
Home registration
The Bill provides that partners in a domestic relationship within the State, whether resident of Uttarakhand or not, are obliged to submit a declaration of relationship under Section 381(1) to the Registrar of their jurisdiction. They all live according to the prescribed format.
It also provides that any children in a common-law relationship shall be the legal children of the couple. Cohabiting relationships in which at least one partner is a minor will not be registered.
Cohabiting relationships in which one party’s consent to the identity of the other party is obtained through force, coercion, undue influence, misrepresentation or fraud will also not be registered.
The Registrar will check the contents of the declaration of common-law relationship to ensure that it does not fall within the categories described in section 380.
The bill states that any person who fails to register a live-in relationship for a period exceeding one month will be liable to imprisonment for a term up to three months or a fine up to Rs 10,000, or both.
Anyone who provides false information in a declaration of a common-law relationship to the registrar may be liable to a higher fine, in addition to a jail term of up to three months.
If a woman in a cohabiting relationship is abandoned by her partner, she will have the right to claim alimony from her partner, for which she can file a lawsuit with a court of competent jurisdiction over the place where they last lived together.
Reaction to UCC Bill
Uttarakhand Waqf Board Chairman Shadab Shams welcomed the legislation. “Why should Muslim women who cannot have children be exempted from the option of adoption?” he said in an interview with News18. Shams welcomed the provision in the bill that gives men and women equal inheritance rights.
However, housewife Ruksana Qureshi disagrees. “Shariat said we can only go to Hajj with Mehram, and Mehram can only be my biological son. An adopted or surrogate son does not meet this requirement. It is not in line with my beliefs,” she said.
However, Shams noted that the government now allows the pilgrimage to be performed without mehram. “I agree that it will be difficult to implement this provision. But just like the changes that can be seen after the triple talaq law, I hope this too will be implemented,” he said.
Passing the legislation on UCC will fulfill a major promise made by the BJP to the people of the state ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, where the saffron party came to power with a landslide victory for the second consecutive term. Several BJP-ruled states in the country, including Gujarat and Assam, have expressed keenness to follow the Uttarakhand UCC model.
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