Three days before the Uttarakhand Assembly will convene a special session to pass Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill, the state government-appointed panel to prepare a draft of the UCC on Friday, February 2, submitted the document to Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami during a Mukhya Sevak Sadan event.
The draft was handed over to the chief minister by a five-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.
The UCC will provide a legal framework for a uniform marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance laws for all citizens irrespective of their religion in the state.
If implemented, Uttarakhand will become the first state in the country after Independence to adopt the UCC. It has been operational in Goa since the days of the Portugese rule.
In a crucial step, according to The Indian Express, the panel has recommended the exemption of tribals, who have been voicing their dissent against UCC, from the purview of the bill because of the special status granted to them. Uttarakhand has a 2.9% tribal population and notable groups include the Jaunsari, Bhotiyas, Tharus, Rajis, and Buksas.
Sources said among the key aspects of the report was making halala, iddat, and triple talaq — which are practices governing marriage and divorce as per the Muslim personal law — punishable offences. Polygamy has also been recommended for a ban.
A special four-day session of the Uttarakhand Assembly has already been convened from February 5-8 to pass a legislation on the UCC. The draft will be discussed in a meeting of the state Cabinet before it is tabled in the form of a Bill in the Assembly.
The panel was constituted in May, 2022 to prepare a draft of the UCC. Constituted for six months initially, it was given four extensions to look into all aspects before finalising its report.
It received 2.33 lakh written suggestions and held 60 meetings in which the members interacted with around 60,000 people in the course of preparing the draft.
Passing a legislation on the UCC will fulfil a major promise made by the BJP to the people of the state in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly polls, which saw the saffron party storm to power with a landslide victory for the second consecutive term – a feat achieved for the first time by any political party in the state which came into being in 2000.
Speaking with reporters, CM Dhami stated: “We all were waiting for the draft for a very long time and today we have received the UCC committee has submitted its report to us. We will move forward. We will examine this draft, and after completing all the formalities we will put this forward during the State Assembly and this will be discussed further.”
“While making a promise to the people of the state in the 2022 assembly elections, we had constituted the UCC Committee, taking a pledge to implement the Uniform Civil Code in the state. The 5-member drafting committee has made a draft for the UCC. Two sub-committees were also made,” he further stated.
In a post on his official X handle, Dhami stated that it was a “important day” for the state’s people since the UCC will assist fulfil the objective of Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat.
“The committee formed to prepare the draft for the purpose of implementing the UCC will submit the draft today at 11 am in Dehradun. After reviewing, we will move forward in the direction of implementing the UCC in the state by bringing a bill in the upcoming assembly session,” Dhami stated.
(With inputs from agencies)
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