BJP government in Uttarakhand goes into overdrive to implement UCC in January

Public Lokpal
January 03, 2025

DEHRADUN: The entire government machinery in Uttarakhand has gone into an overdrive to implement India's first Uniform Civil Code in the state within the month-long timeline set for the purpose by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

"We are celebrating 2025 as the silver jubilee year of statehood to Uttarakhand. It is going to be a year of big achievements. We have kept our promise of bringing a UCC. We will implement it in January," Dhami had said ushering in the new year on January 1.

Though no dates have been given yet, there is speculation that it might be implemented on Republic Day.

An expert committee headed by former chief secretary Shatrughna Singh to frame the rules for the implementation of UCC had submitted its final report to the state government in October, 2024 and the home department has been entrusted with the task of implementing it.

Orientation sessions are being held to educate the staff of departments concerned about the provisions of the law and how to execute them on the ground.

Staff at the district, block and tehsil levels are being trained about how to go about its implementation, Doon University Vice Chancellor Surekha Dangwal who was part of the panel that drafted the UCC as well as the one which framed the rules for its implementation, told PTI.

It was a huge exercise which is in its final stages, she said.

A portal has been created to inform people about the provisions of the law and an app is also being created to help people register their marriages or live-in relationships sitting at home, she said.

This is in order to simplify the process so that people do not have to run around government offices to go for the mandatory registration of their marriages and live-in relationships, Dangwal said.

The UCC makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory. A simple and user-friendly process will facilitate higher degree of compliance to the provisions of the law, Dangwal said.

The UCC has been on the BJP's agenda nationally for many years. But the party's government in Uttarakhand became the first to take a concrete step towards implementing it just before the Lok Sabha elections last year.

An expert committee formed by Dhami and headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai submitted a comprehensive draft in four volumes to the state government in February 2024.

Acting on the draft, the state government presented the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Bill in the assembly a few days later and it was passed on February 7.

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Act received President Droupadi Murmu's approval on March 11, making the hill state the first in independent India to have a UCC Act.

A nine-member state government appointed panel, chaired by former chief secretary Singh to lay down the rules for the UCC's implementation panel submitted its final report and Dhami has said in no unclear terms that the UCC will be implemented in January.

The UCC seeks to establish a uniform and an equal set of rules on marriage, divorce, succession, and inheritance for all citizens in the state, except the scheduled tribes, irrespective of religion.

It makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory.

Several BJP-ruled states including Assam have already expressed desire to adopt Uttarakhand's UCC as a model.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said in Parliament that every state with a BJP government would bring in the UCC the way it was done in Uttarakhand.

Introducing a UCC was also a major pre-poll promise made by Dhami before the 2022 assembly polls, which the BJP won to storm to power in the state for a second consecutive term, a feat achieved by no party in the state since it was formed in 2000.

PTI