Uttarakhand likely to issue gazette notification for UCC by January end

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami during a roadshow ahead of the State’s municipal elections, in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, on January 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Uttarakhand government on Monday (January 20, 2025) approved the rules for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in a State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Paving the way for its implementation, Mr. Dhami said the government would issue a gazette notification for the legislation by the end of January.

The UCC, passed by the State Assembly last year in February, has kept tribals out of its ambit and provisioned a complete ban on practices like halala, iddat, and talaq (customs related to marriage and divorce in Muslim Personal Law). It also ensures that women are given equal rights in matters related to property and inheritance rights.

The Code also made it mandatory to register marriage and divorce, failing which the couple concerned will be deprived of the benefits of all government facilities. It also has stringent provisions for failure to register live-in relationships. The children born out of a live-in relationship will be considered a legitimate child of the couple under UCC.

“In the Assembly polls of 2022, we had promised to the people of Uttarakhand that we will bring a law same for all as we form the government. We brought Uniform Civil Code under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi…we approved the UCC manual in Cabinet meeting and we will issue the notification in this month only,” Mr. Dhami said in a public rally in Mussorrie.

For the implementation of UCC, the State government has set up an online portal for registration of marriage, divorce, rights of inheritance, live-in relationship, and termination of live-in relationship. This will help every citizen to register and access his data and application status on the mobile phone or at home, a communique from the State government stated.

To make the registration facility simple and easy for the citizens, the Common Service Centre (CSC) has been authorised by the State, which will do the registration through the online platform.

“In hilly/remote areas where internet facilities are not available, the agents of CSC will go door-to-door and provide the above facilities to the citizens,” a government official said.

In rural areas, Gram Panchayat Development Officers have been appointed as Sub-Registrars for the work related to these registrations, so that the citizens living in far-off rural areas can avail the facility of registration at the local level itself.

To make the facility of registration in UCC simple and smooth, the option of registration through Aadhar has also been given and tracking can be done through e-mail and SMS.

Under the rules, arrangements have also been made for registration of complaints of citizens through online portal.

The UCC was one of the poll promises of the BJP during the 2022 Assembly election in Uttarakhand. In June 2022, the government had formed a five-member expert committee to examine ways for introducing UCC in the State. The panel was headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (retired), who had submitted the draft to the State government in February 2024. It was subsequently passed by the State Cabinet that month.

After it was passed in the Assembly during a special session, the UCC Bill was sent for the Governor’s nod and was approved by Lt. Gen. Gurmit Singh (retd.) on February 28. The State then sent it for final approval as the UCC falls under the Concurrent list and requires approval from the President.