New Delhi: The Uttarakhand government today (January 27) rolled out its controversial uniform civil code.
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated a new website which purports to ease the process of “UCC services registration” – “a streamlined process for accessing and registering for services under the Uniform Civil Code framework, ensuring ease of use, transparency, and equal access for all citizens.”
The rules of the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code claim to establish a comprehensive legal framework “aimed at unifying personal laws related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and succession for all citizens of Uttarakhand, irrespective of religion or community.”
While the government claims that “these rules are designed to promote equality, fairness, and streamlined governance in civil matters,” they have been severely criticised as a legal move that strikes a blow on adult autonomy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of the state had announced the constitution of the committee to formulate these rules, under retired judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. In August, 2022, two sub-committees were formed. A total of 72 meetings were held by the committee, the government claims. The draft code was finalised in late 2023.
The cabinet approved the rules manual on January 20 this year.
The portal’s stated services include the online registration of marriages, divorces, live-in relationships, and termination of live-in relationships. The last two are among the more contentious inclusions in the uniform civil code.
A screengrab from the UCC Uttarakhand website.
As legal expert Saumya Uma put it: “The Bill embeds and enforces heterosexuality in its provisions, ignores ramifications of these provisions on women (including queer and trans women) and reinforces natal family’s control over choice marriages and live-in relationships among adults.”
Sociologist Amrit Srinivasan noted, “The criticism that the compulsory registration process, six months into or out of a partnership, infringes the right to privacy and illegitimately criminalises and infantilises adult relations, does not go far enough. Divested of all culpability, the underlying cultural presumptions of the regulation have not come up for public discussion at all.”
Uttarakhand is now the first state in independent India to pass a common law on marriage, divorce, inheritance and even live-in relationships between two consenting adults. As Mrinal Pande wrote on The Wire, “The hurry with which the Bill was brought and passed on the eve of the 2024 elections clearly indicates a similar passage for the Bill in all other states…”.
Uma has also noted, “Adoption, guardianship and surrogacy are conspicuous by their absence.”
The official website is also the portal for the declaration of legal heirs for intestate succession, registration of will, submission of appeals against decisions, and “access for different Data and Information”.
The portal features Aadhaar-based verification and AI-based translation services in 22 Indian languages.
