Uttarakhand To Implement UCC Today: This Is How It Will Impact Marriages, Live-In Relationships
The UCC will govern and regulate the laws relating to marriage and divorce, succession, live-in relationships and related matters.
UCC Uttarakhand: Uttarakhand will implement the Uniform Civil Code today, making it the first state in independent India to put into effect such a law. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said all preparations have been completed to implement the UCC, including getting approval of the rules for the implementation of the Act and training of officials concerned.
The government has gone into an overdrive to implement the UCC in the state within the month-long timeline set for it as it was among the key poll promises made by Dhami during the 2022 Assembly elections. Several BJP-ruled states, including Assam, have already expressed their desire to adopt Uttarakhand's UCC as a model.
How Will UCC Impact Citizens?
The UCC will govern and regulate the laws relating to marriage and divorce, succession, live-in relationships and related matters. It sets equal marriageable age for men and women, grounds of divorce and procedures across all religions, and bans polygamy and 'halala'.
Under this, marriage can be solemnised only between those parties; none of whom has a living spouse, both are mentally capable of giving legal permission, the man should have completed at least 21 years of age and the woman 18 years of age. They should not be in the ambit of "prohibited relationships".
The UCC makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory. Live-in partners are required to submit a formal statement of their relationship to the local registrar, who will conduct a summary inquiry to verify compliance with legal stipulations.
The UCC also brings significant changes on succession and inheritance. Now testamentary successions, the process of passing down a person’s property and belongings to others after they die, require detailed documentation. Any soldier or air force personnel engaged in an expedition, actual warfare, or a mariner at sea can make a privileged will for which rules have been kept flexible.
The UCC applies to all residents of Uttarakhand, except Scheduled Tribes and protected authority-empowered persons and communities.
Congress' Objection
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said UCC is nothing but kickstarting a pilot project. "This is nothing but an attempt to fast-track the process, to have a pilot project, before you can impose... because you don't have a consensus. So you do it like kickstarting a pilot project," the leader said.
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