Dehradun: Pushkar Singh Dhami led Uttarakhand Government will introduce the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state assembly today. CM Dhami said that the proposed UCC will not only be “for the good of all sections” but also align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas’ and ‘Ek Bharat, Sreshtha Bharat.’
The proposed UCC for Uttarakhand goes beyond religious boundaries, granting adoption rights to everyone, including Muslim women. It seeks to ban practices such as halala and iddat (Islamic practices a woman must go through after a divorce or the death of the husband), promote the declaration of live-in relationships, and simplify adoption procedures.
The practice of iddat has been at the centre of Pakistan politics recently, with its jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Khan accused of not completing the waiting period after divorcing her previous husband and marrying Khan in 2018.
Once the proposed UCC is in place, live-in relationships will have to be registered under law. Legal experts claim that registration of such relationships would benefit both men and women.
“False cases registered by women would also come down. Legal sanctity would now be there in such cases,” former DGP of Uttarakhand Ashok Kumar told to the media.
The draft excludes population control measures and the Scheduled Tribes, constituting 3 per cent of Uttarakhand’s population.
Other key features of the UCC include equal property rights for sons and daughters, elimination of distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate children, and equal treatment for adopted and biologically born children. In the event of a person’s death, the proposed UCC ensures equal property rights for the spouse, children, and parents, a departure from previous laws that limited such rights.
