Saturday, 19 October 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
By receiving the draft of UCC regulations from the rules and implementation committee headed by former chief secretary Shatrughna Singh, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is one step away from fulfilling his promise made to the people of Uttarakhand ahead of the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2022. Following the victory of BJP in the elections, the CM walked the talk on UCC when in the first meeting of the cabinet held on May 27, 2022, the state cabinet constituted an expert committee headed by retired justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. Justice (retd) Pramod Kohli, social worker Manu Gaur, former chief secretary of Uttarakhand Shatrughan Singh and Vice Chancellor (VC) of Doon University Surekha Dangwal were appointed the members of the expert committee.
The expert committee on UCC studied about 2,33,000 suggestions and interacted with more than 10,000 people for preparing its draft. It also held 72 meetings for fulfilling the task assigned to it and handed over its report to the CM on February 2, 2024. The Dhami government acted fast in convening a special session of the State Assembly which passed the UCC bill on February 7, 2024. The President of India gave her assent to the bill on March 12, 2024.
After the passage of the bill the State government constituted another committee headed by former CS Singh for preparing UCC regulations. The committee has now submitted its draft which will now be put before the cabinet which will decide on the formal date of the implementation of UCC in the State.
Uniform Civil Code
UCC mandates similar laws of marriage, divorce, maintenance and succession in all the religions and communities in the State. While the scheduled castes (ST) have been kept out of purview of the bill, the UCC makes the registration of marriage compulsory and bans second marriage of individuals in case of survival of either husband or wife. UCC makes no discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate children. Registration of live-in relationships has been mandatory in the UCC and children born out of such relationships will have all the rights.
