Uttarakhand Assembly Likely To Pass UCC Bill Today: Here Are The Latest Updates

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill was tabled in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Tuesday (6 January).

The 202-page bill was tabled by Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami in the state Assembly.

After discussion on the bill on Tuesday, the Assembly was adjourned till Wednesday.

The Uttarakhand Assembly will again begin the discussion on the bill today after which the it is likely to be passed.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Opposition Congress, which has 19 seats in the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly, said that the bill was being brought in a hasty manner and sought more time to study the legislation.

Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Yashpal Arya suggested that the bill be referred to the standing committee for reconsideration.

The bill is set for a smooth sailing in the state Assembly as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 47 MLAs while the Opposition, including Congress and BSP, has 21 members in the house.

The Uttarakhand UCC bill focuses on women's equality and bats for prohibiting polygamy. It aims to standardise the marriage age across religions and make certain religious personal law practices punishable.

The UCC draft proposes making halala, iddat, and triple talaq – practices governing marriage and divorce under the Muslim personal law – punishable offences.

It also proposes making the legal age for marriage, for both men and women, uniform across religions. Further, the draft recommends exempting tribal communities from the purview of the bill.

The bill makes registration of live-in relationships mandatory, and proposes equal property inheritance rights to sons and daughters.

The UCC was one of the major poll promises of the BJP in the run-up to the state Assembly elections in February 2022. The committee was announced after the first Cabinet meeting of the newly-formed Uttarakhand government.

The panel received over 2.3 lakh suggestions from the public, most of which were received through letters, registered posts, emails, and written suggestions through its online portal.

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