The Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in Uttarakhand on Monday, 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, Dhami said in a statement.
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will bring about uniformity in the society and ensure equal rights and responsibilities for all citizens, he said.
"UCC is just an offering made by our state in the great 'yagya' being performed by the Prime Minister to make the country a developed, organised, harmonious and self-reliant nation," he said.
The law's implementation was a major commitment of the BJP in the run-up to the 2022 assembly polls which saw the party storm to power for a second consecutive term, something never done by any other party in the state since its creation in 2000.
Dhami had even attributed the historic mandate to the party's commitment on passing the UCC.
As soon as Dhami formed the government again in March 2022, the state cabinet at its very first meeting chaired by him cleared a proposal for the formation of an expert committee to draft the law.
An expert committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai was constituted on May 27, 2022 to prepare the draft of the UCC.
The panel headed by Desai set the ball rolling on the implementation of UCC by submitting a comprehensive draft in four volumes, prepared after one and a half years of dialogue with different sections of the state's population.
The panel sent the draft to the state government on February 2, 2024 and a legislation on it was passed just a few days later by the state assembly on February 7.
It was given president's assent nearly a month later paving the way for its implementation.
An expert committee headed by former chief secretary Shatrughna Singh, formed to frame the rules and regulations for the implementation of the Act, submitted its report to the state government late last year.
The state cabinet gave its approval recently and authorised the chief minister to decide a date for its implementation.
On Monday, Uttarakhand will become the first state to implement the UCC and set a model for other states to follow. Several BJP-ruled states, including Assam, have already expressed their desire to adopt Uttarakhand's UCC as a model.
"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 said on New Year's Day.
"The Gangotri of UCC will spring from Uttarakhand and spread to the rest of the country," he said.
The government machinery in Uttarakhand has gone into an overdrive to implement the UCC in the state within the month-long timeline set for it by Dhami.
The Uniform Civil Code Act of Uttarakhand 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'.
Doon University Vice Chancellor Surekha Dangwal, who was part of the panel that drafted the UCC and was among those who framed the rules for its implementation, described provisions aimed at bringing about gender parity in matters of marriage, divorce and succession, treating all children as legitimate including those born of void or voidable marriages, simplifying the process of preparing a will and regulating live-in relationships as the most outstanding in the UCC.
"Gender parity across all religions is the spirit of UCC," Dangwal told PTI.
The UCC makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory. Facilities have been created to help people register their marriages online so that they do not have to run around government offices for it, she said.
"Another remarkable feature of the UCC is that it treats all children as legitimate. We have in fact totally done away with the term illegitimate in the context of children," she said. The UCC also makes a special provision for defence personnel called "privileged will" which can be made both in writing or by word of mouth.
Any soldier or air force personnel engaged in an expedition or actual warfare or a mariner at sea can make a privileged will for which rules have been kept flexible.
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