UCC bill tabled in Uttarakhand Assembly

The Uniform Civil Code bill -- which proposes uniform marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance laws for all citizens irrespective of their religion in Uttarakhand -- was tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday, 6 February.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who presented the bill in the House, entered the assembly with an original copy of the Constitution.

The bill will now be debated in the assembly before being passed.

The ongoing session of the state assembly was convened especially for the passage of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill.

Once it becomes an act, Uttarakhand will become the first state in the country after Independence to adopt the UCC. It has been operational in Goa since the days of Portuguese rule.

Several BJP ruled states in the country, including Gujarat and Assam, have expressed their keenness to follow the Uttarakhand UCC as a model.

The Uttarakhand cabinet approved the final draft of the Uniform Civil Code during a special four-day session that begun on Monday, 5 February.

"Today in the Cabinet meeting, we passed the proposal to bring the legislation on the Uniform Civil Code in the upcoming Assembly session," Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said after chairing the meeting at his official residence on Sunday, 4 February.

The final draft of the UCC, running into 740 pages in four volumes, was submitted to Chief Minister Dhami recently by a five-member panel headed by retired judge of the Supreme Court Ranjana Prakash Desai.