The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday enacted the much-talked about Unifom Civil Code (UCC) amidst demand by the Opposition to recommend it for a select committee of the state legislature.

After the enactment of the law, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami proclaimed that Uttarakhand has taken lead in taking the nation to a new stride in legislation.

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The draft UCC Bill tabled in the assembly on Tuesday was made a law with a thumping majority following a debate in the House even as a demand was raised by the Opposition for referring it to the select committee claiming that draft needed review for certain anomalies in it.

During the discussion in the House, Chief Minister Dhami said, “The state has taken a big leap in the direction of leading the country to a new stride of social and legal justice.”

According to Dhami, the UCC not only guarantees constitutional rights to the people of Uttarakhand but also ensures their implementation. He said, “UCC will end evil practices in the communities assuring socio-legal justice to the people. It’s a historic law made rising above the castes, religions, sects and all other barriers to provide equal rights with no discrimination.”

The chief minister added, “This is the time of change and progress as stated by Prime Minister Naremdra Modi. The UCC will safeguard mothers, sisters, daughters and stop the injustices meted out to them.”

Dhami further said, “The new law guarantees equality to about 50 per cent of the population of India starting from Uttarakhand.”

ऐतिहासिक समान नागरिक संहिता विधेयक-2024 विधानसभा में पारित..

माँ गंगा व यमुना की उद्गम स्थली देवभूमि उत्तराखण्ड से निकली UCC के रूप में समानता और समरूपता की यह अविरल धारा संपूर्ण देश का पथ प्रदर्शित करेगी। यह विधेयक मातृशक्ति के सम्मान एवं उनकी सुरक्षा के प्रति हमारी सरकार की… pic.twitter.com/0nfGBA3L3C

— Pushkar Singh Dhami (@pushkardhami) February 7, 2024

Earlier, Opposition parties, including the Congress party and BSP while endorsing the legislation, opposed certain contents including live-in relationship and property inheritance clauses in the Bill alleging that these violated the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Yashpal Arya, his party colleague and MLA Pritam Singh and BSP MLA Shahjad, along with other speakers from Opposition benches, demanded that the Bill should be referred to the select committee for weeding out the alleged snags and come up with the final draft Bill.

Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri refused to accept the Opposition demand and the Bill was put to vote leading to its enactment with a huge majority in the House.

The UCC envisages polygamy, halala, and unregistered live-in relations as punishable offences.

The Act titled ‘The Uniform Civil Code 2024’ categorically disallows marriage of any person, cutting across faith and caste divides, having a spouse alive. It, however, allows the remarriage of a divorced spouse without any precondition like halala with the provision for three years imprisonment or a fine of one lakh rupees or both for its violation.

The more than 220-page UCC draft was prepared by a five-member committee of experts constituted by the Dhami government in May 2022. The committee submitted the report on February 2, 2024 with more than 2.72 lakh suggestions coming from the public directly and nearly 43 public contact and interaction meetings held in different parts of the state.

Nearly 10,000 families constituting one-tenth of the state’s population took part in the public interactions with the committee members in nearly 19 months.