Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tabled the Uniform Civil Code Bill during a special session in the state assembly on Tuesday. The assembly has been adjourned and it will convene again at 2pm to debate the controversial bill.
This session of Uttarakhand Assembly has been convened especially to pass the Uniform Civil Code. Uttarakhand has become the first state to table UCC.
Before the start of the session, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be "for the good of all sections" and there is no need to worry as he urged members of other parties to debate the bill in the House in a positive manner. "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 state cabinet passed the UCC draft at a meeting chaired by Dhami on Sunday. 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.
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.
