Uttarakhand Assembly passes UCC Bill; becomes Indias first state to implement Uniform Civil Code

A day after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami introduced the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, the state Assembly passed it on Wednesday. With the House nod, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to implement a Uniform Civil Code, which presents common law for marriage, divorce, inheritance of property, etc. The UCC Bill, which will now become an Act is based on the draft submitted by a high-level committee formed by the Uttarakhand government under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana P Desai.

The implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand comes months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The reports have claimed that the Union Government is planning to bring a similar law at the national level and BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Assam are already in the process of passing UCC law in their respective states.

The Uniform Civil Code has been one of the foundational items of BJP's agenda apart from the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Uniform Civil Code brings a common law for marriage, divorce, inheritance of property, etc., which were earlier governed by personal laws of every religion. The common code bars bigamy (marrying one person while still legally married to another) and polygamy (having multiple spouses simultaneously).

The Uttarakhand government has cleared that the members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community will remain out of the purview of the Uniform Civil Code. The UCC will not apply to "members of any Scheduled Tribes within the meaning of clause (25) of Article 366 read with Article 142 of the Constitution of India and the persons and group of persons whose customary rights are protected under Part XXI of the Constitution of India."