The uniform Civil Code bill was tabled by the Uttarakhand administration in the state assembly today, which laid down mandatory registration requirements for the live-in relationships followed by imprisonment of 3 months if failed to meet the conditions, within a month. A child born in such a case will be deemed legitimate, as per the bill.
The bill further proposes a common law on - marriage, divorce, land, property, and inheritance for all citizens irrespective of their religion in the state, excluding the Scheduled Tribes.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tabled the UCC of Uttarakhand 2024 bill in the house on Feb 6, making a symbolic gesture, making an entry into the house with the original constitution's copy.
Conditions for Live-in relationships tabled in UCC bill:
- The bill makes it compulsory for partners of a live-in relationship within the state, whether they are residents of Uttarakhand or not, to submit a statement of their relationship under sub-section (1) of section 381 to the Registrar within whose jurisdiction they are living in a specified format.
- If one partner is a minor, the live-in relationships will not be registered.
- If the consent of one of the partners was acquired by force, coercion, undue influence, misrepresentation or fraud concerning the identity of the other partner will also fail to be registered.
- The registrar will review the content of the statement of live-in relationships to make sure that they are not of such a kind as mentioned under section 380.
- In case, false information is provided in a statement of any of the partners on a live-in relationship to the Registrar, then a higher fine apart from imprisonment of up to three months can be imposed on the person who lied.
- In case, a woman in a live-in relationship gets abandoned by her partner, she will be entitled to claim maintenance from him for which she may approach a competent court having jurisdiction over the place where they last cohabited.
Treasury benches welcomed the tabling of the bill with thumping of desks and chants of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", "Vande Mataram" and "Jai Shri Ram".
The original list of business for the day said the bill would be tabled, debated, and passed by the House, but Speaker Ritu Khanduri amended it conceding to the demands of the opposition members who wanted more time to study the bill and present their views on it. Before the bill was tabled, there were protests inside the House by opposition members who said they were not given time to study its provisions.
"It seems the government wants to pass the bill without a debate in violation of the legislative traditions," Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya said.
Slogans were also raised by the opposition members, who were pacified after the Speaker assured them that they would get enough time to study the bill.
They also protested against the decision of the business advisory committee of the House to suspend the Question Hour to table the UCC.
They contended that the Question Hour was necessary to raise issues of public interest like disasters, including land subsidence in Joshimath, and justice to Ankita Bhandari, a receptionist of a resort in Pauri district who was murdered allegedly by her employer.
The bill applies to the whole of Uttarakhand and also to people from the state who reside outside its territories.
However, the Scheduled Tribes have been left out of the ambit of the bill.
"Nothing contained in this code shall apply to the members of any Scheduled Tribes.... and the persons and group of persons whose customary rights are protected under Part XXI of the Constitution of India," the bill states.
It will come into force from the date it is notified in the gazette. Once it becomes an act, Uttarakhand will become the first state in the country after Independence to adopt the UCC. It has been operational in Goa since the days of Portuguese rule. The ongoing session of the state assembly was convened especially for the passage of the UCC bill.
Passing legislation on the UCC will fulfill a major promise made by the BJP to the people of the state in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly polls, which saw the saffron party storm to power with a landslide victory for the second consecutive term.
Several BJP-ruled states in the country, including Gujarat and Assam, have expressed their keenness to follow the Uttarakhand UCC as a model. Uttarakhand is the first state where such legislation is to be implemented in any state after India gained independence.
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