New divorce laws, no polygamy: India's Uttarakhand bats for UCC, here's all you need to know about the bill

The legislature of the north Indian state of Uttarakhand tabled a bill on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) on Tuesday (Feb 6).

Uttarakhand's Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who has been leading this move, on Monday (Feb 5) said that the proposed UCC will not only be "for the good of all sections" but will also align the 'Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas' (development for everyone) and 'Ek Bharat, Sreshtha Bharat' (one, great India) vision of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is legislation aimed at a singular socio-cultural code for all communities irrespective of religion or caste.

Retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai headed the government-appointed panel which drafted a four-volume, 749-page report that contains many recommendations.

What suggestions did the panel receive?

A total of 233,000 written feedback forms were collected by the panel online and it hosted more than 70 public forums.

The members of the government-appointed panel, during these meetings, involved nearly 60,000 people who helped in developing the draft.

The UCC contains different proposals which include a complete ban on polygamy as well as child marriage. It also proposes a uniform process for divorce and a standardised marriageable age for girls across different faiths.

The UCC's recommendations, which are aimed at fostering gender equality as well as social cohesion, will be discussed during the special four-day assembly session which started on Monday (Feb 5) and continued till Thursday (Feb 8).

The UCC draft includes different facets of civilian life as recommendations include mandatory marriage registration, an extension of inheritance rights, as well as increasing the marriageable age for girls and facilitating girls' pursuit of education before their marriage.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to push for legal documentation, couples who do not register their marriages will be considered ineligible for government facilities.

What did the Uniform Civil Code recommend?

Although the specific recommendations included in the draft document of the Uniform Civil Code remain undisclosed, the media reports suggested that the UCC will establish a legal framework which encompasses marriage, divorce, land, property, and inheritance laws, which will not be affected by the religious affiliations.

The Uniform Civil Code if enacted will make Uttarakhand the first state in post-Independence India to have adopted it, after Goa where it has remained operational since the days when the Portuguese ruled the territory.

Uttarakhand's proposed UCC goes beyond religious boundaries and everyone's adoption rights, which includes Muslim women.

The UCC seeks a ban on practices like halala and iddat - which are Islamic practices that women are supposed to go through after the husband's death or divorce - and promotes simplification of adoption procedures and the declaration of live-in relationships.

Watch:Uttarakhand: Uniform Civil Code bill to be tabled in assembly on February 6th

The practice of iddat was in the headlines of Pakistan's media days back after its former prime minister Imran Khan's wife Bushra Khan was accused of not waiting for the completion of the waiting period after getting divorced from her former husband and married Khan in 2018.

The Scheduled Tribes, which constitute 3 per cent of Uttarakhand's population and population control measures have not been included in the draft.

The UCC's other key features include the removal of distinctions between illegitimate and legitimate children, equal treatment to adopted and biologically born children and equal property rights for sons and daughters.

If a person dies, as per the proposed UCC, his spouse, children, and parents will get equal property rights, which is a move ahead from previous laws which limited such rights.

(With inputs from agencies)