DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand govt, in a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at his residence on Sunday evening, approved the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) draft report.
The draft, which a five-member UCC panel had submitted to the govt on Friday, will now be tabled during a specially-convened assembly session scheduled on Feb 6.
After the assembly passes it and it becomes an Act, Uttarakhand will become the first state post-independence to implement UCC.
Govts of Assam and Gujarat have also shown interest in adopting the “Uttarakhand UCC model”.
Sunday evening’s meeting came as a surprise to many since it was being surmised that the cabinet, which had convened on Saturday without taking up the UCC issue, would now pass the draft on Tuesday when the assembly session was called. Sources said that the cabinet was convened on Sunday with a single agenda — to endorse the UCC draft report, adding that prior to official nod, the entire cabinet was given a detailed presentation of the report. Notably, there was no official briefing following Sunday’s cabinet huddle.
The UCC draft committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, had submitted a 740-page report — divided in four volumes — on Feb 2. The submission of the draft culminated an almost two-year process which started on May 27, 2022.
Some of the key proposals put forth by the UCC draft committee include prohibition of polygamy, halala, iddat and child marriage.
U niform age for girls’ marriage across all religions, equal inheritance rights for both genders, and mandatory registration of live-in relationships by the couple are some of the key proposals put forth by the panel. Also, scheduled tribes (STs) have been exempted from the purview of the bill.
The tribal population in the state, which is around 3%, had been voicing its dissent against UCC in wake of the special status accorded to them. Incidentally, the draft panel had received several suggestions on initiating a maintenance fund for families where sole breadwinners pass away leaving minor children behind or are confined to bed due to serious health ailments. Among the panel’s recommendations are points like — in case of death of a husband, the wife will get compensation and will be responsible for upkeep of his elderly parents
. In the event she remarries, the compensation she is getting from the govt will have to be shared with her ex-husband’s parents, the panel noted..
The draft, which a five-member UCC panel had submitted to the govt on Friday, will now be tabled during a specially-convened assembly session scheduled on Feb 6.
After the assembly passes it and it becomes an Act, Uttarakhand will become the first state post-independence to implement UCC.
Govts of Assam and Gujarat have also shown interest in adopting the “Uttarakhand UCC model”.
Sunday evening’s meeting came as a surprise to many since it was being surmised that the cabinet, which had convened on Saturday without taking up the UCC issue, would now pass the draft on Tuesday when the assembly session was called. Sources said that the cabinet was convened on Sunday with a single agenda — to endorse the UCC draft report, adding that prior to official nod, the entire cabinet was given a detailed presentation of the report. Notably, there was no official briefing following Sunday’s cabinet huddle.
The UCC draft committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, had submitted a 740-page report — divided in four volumes — on Feb 2. The submission of the draft culminated an almost two-year process which started on May 27, 2022.
Some of the key proposals put forth by the UCC draft committee include prohibition of polygamy, halala, iddat and child marriage.
U niform age for girls’ marriage across all religions, equal inheritance rights for both genders, and mandatory registration of live-in relationships by the couple are some of the key proposals put forth by the panel. Also, scheduled tribes (STs) have been exempted from the purview of the bill.
The tribal population in the state, which is around 3%, had been voicing its dissent against UCC in wake of the special status accorded to them. Incidentally, the draft panel had received several suggestions on initiating a maintenance fund for families where sole breadwinners pass away leaving minor children behind or are confined to bed due to serious health ailments. Among the panel’s recommendations are points like — in case of death of a husband, the wife will get compensation and will be responsible for upkeep of his elderly parents
. In the event she remarries, the compensation she is getting from the govt will have to be shared with her ex-husband’s parents, the panel noted..
