Uttarakhand House clears Uniform Civil Code Bill; no ordinary law: CM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7

The Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, which may serve as template for other BJP-run states to enact similar legislation.

The Bill was passed by a voice vote after it was introduced in the Assembly by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday.

• Editorial: Uniform Civil Code

“This is no ordinary Bill,” Dhami said speaking on the code which seeks to ban polygamy, polyandry and mandatory registration of marriages and live-in ties.

Uttarakhand is set to become the first state to implement the UCC, which provides for common laws for marriage, divorce, and inheritance in the state and for residents of the state living elsewhere. The Bill exempts STs and is therefore not uniform in a full sense.

Other BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP are also expected to take a cue from the Uttarakhand draft and enact a similar law.

The BJP had earlier taken an in-principle call to implement its only pending core poll promise of the UCC through states which are empowered by the Constitution to legislate on the subject.

Entry 5 of the Concurrent List (matters on which both Centre and states can legislate) in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, confers the jurisdiction on the state to enact laws on marriage and divorce, infants and minors, adoption, wills, intestacy, succession, joint family and partition. The sole condition about subjects in Entry 5 is that in case the Centre has a law, state law should be in conformity with it. Citing the constitution, the Supreme Court had in January 2023 rejected a PIL challenging Uttarakhand government’s decision to constitute a five-member UCC committee.

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