Dehradun, 07 February: The Uniform Civil Code Bill (UCC) was passed in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday. Apart from this, reservation bill in government service for the identified agitators of Uttarakhand state movement or their dependents was also passed.
After this important step of the state government, Uttarakhand has become the first state in the country, where concrete initiatives have been taken towards implementing UCC. With this the session has been adjourned indefinitely.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had presented the Uniform Civil Code Bill on the table of the Assembly on Tuesday. After completion of the discussion on Tuesday and Wednesday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami requested the House to pass the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand-2024 Bill on Wednesday evening. After this, the bench declared this important bill passed on the basis of majority.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Premchand Gupta put forward a proposal to consider the Reservation Bill-2023 in Government Services for the identified agitators of the Uttarakhand State Movement or their dependents, as amended by the Select Committee. After this this bill for reservation in government services was passed.
However, the opposition was demanding that the UCC Bill be referred to a select committee. For this, Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya has submitted the signed letter of the MLAs to the Assembly Speaker. This bill passed by the Assembly will be sent to the Governor for approval. The Governor can send orders to the President to implement this law.
The 202-page Uniform Civil Code Bill primarily focuses on the protection of women’s rights. The Bill is divided into four sections: Marriage and Divorce, Succession, Live-in Relationship and Miscellaneous. The Bill contains 392 sections, of which the sections relating to succession alone number 328.
The Uniform Civil Code has no effect on the religious beliefs, customs, food habits, worship and dress of marriage. There is same law for divorce in every religion, strict rules are made, without authorized divorce no one will be able to marry again. Live-in relationship declaration is necessary, 6 months punishment for not registering, children born in live-in will get rights in property.
The first section of the Bill focuses on marriage and divorce. It has been made clear that polygamy and child marriage will be invalid. For marriage, the minimum age of a girl should be 18 years and the minimum age of a boy should be 21 years. The parties to the marriage should not fall within the prohibited degrees of kinship. In this, relations with relatives are prohibited. If they are within these degrees, then the custom or tradition of one of the parties permits marriage between them, but this custom or practice should not be contrary to public policy and morality. Registration of marriages taking place after March 26, 2010 will be mandatory. The marriage will remain valid even in case of non-registration, but penalty will be imposed for non-registration. The punishment will be imprisonment up to a maximum of three months and a fine of up to Rs 25,000.
The second section of the Bill clarifies the general rules and methods of succession. In this, women of all religions have been given equal rights in property. It has been made clear that all surviving children, sons or daughters will have equal rights in the property. If a person does not make any will and does not have any children or wife, then relatives will be given priority for succession. The Bill makes extensive provisions regarding succession. A total of 328 sections have been kept in it.
The third section of the bill focuses on live-in relationships. In this, registration has been made mandatory for live-in relationships. A child born during this period will be considered a legitimate child.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami says that with the guidance and inspiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today we are fulfilling the “resolution” that we had expressed to the people of the state in the 2022 assembly elections to bring a Uniform Civil Code law in the state. Are going. Our government, taking all sections of the society along with full responsibility, has presented the Uniform Civil Code Bill in the Assembly. That historic moment is near for Devbhoomi, when Uttarakhand will become a strong pillar of Prime Minister Modi’s vision of “One India, Best India”.
A five-member committee was formed under the leadership of retired judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.
Dhami, in the first cabinet meeting immediately after the formation of his government, had decided to constitute an expert committee to draft a Uniform Civil Code and on May 27, 2022, a five-member committee will be formed under the leadership of retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.
A committee was formed. The committee includes former Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court Pramod Kohli, former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand Shatrughan Singh, Vice Chancellor of Doon University Prof. Surekha Dangwal and social worker Manu Gaur were included. Two sub-committees were also formed, out of which the work of one sub-committee was to prepare the draft of the โCodeโ. The work of the second sub-committee was to invite suggestions from the residents of the state and also to establish dialogue.
The committee started the public dialogue program from the country’s first village Mana and suggestions were received from people of all sections in all the districts of the state. During this period, a total of 43 public dialogue programs were conducted and the dialogue program was completed with a discussion with the migrant Uttarakhandi brothers and sisters on 14 June 2023 in New Delhi.
Committee took 02 lakh 33 thousand suggestions-
The committee had launched a web portal on 08 September 2022 to invite suggestions from every section of the society for preparing its report. The committee received two lakh thirty two thousand nine hundred sixty one (2,32,961) suggestions through various mediums. Which is equal to about 10 percent of the families of the state. 72 meetings of the committee were called to interact with about 10 thousand people and study about 02 lakh 33 thousand suggestions received.
The tenure of the committee was extended four times –
The state government had constituted an expert committee on May 22 to prepare the draft of the Uniform Civil Code. The tenure of this committee was kept for six months. In view of the abundance of work, the government extended its tenure four times. For the first time the tenure was extended for six months on 28 November 2022 and after that the second term was extended for four months on 9 May 2023 and the third term was extended for four months from 22 September. The fourth term was extended for 15 days on January 25 last month. Now the tenure of the committee is ending on 11 February.
