Context: On 27th of January 2025, Uttarakhand has officially rolled out the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for all residents of the State, except the Scheduled Tribes and natives who have migrated out of the State. With this, Uttarakhand has become the first Indian State to implement the UCC post-Independence.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
About Uniform Civil Code:
- A Uniform Civil Code refers to a common civil code or common system of personal laws applicable to all irrespective of religion.
- Matters under personal laws include marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption, and succession of the property.
Constitutional provision for Uniform Civil Code
- Article 44 of the Indian constitution embodies the Indian State to provide for a uniform civil code for its citizens.
- Also, the state of Uttarakhand has enacted the UCC under the legislative powers of concurrent list having subjects of marriage, adoption and succession.
Salient features of UCC of Uttarakhand:
- Encompasses common provisions for marriage, divorce, inheritance, live-in-relationship, etc. for citizens of all communities.
- NOTE: Schedule tribes have been excluded from the provisions applicability.
- Marriage and Divorce
- Ceremonies of Marriage: Marriage can be done by any religious or other ceremonies under Special Marriage Act.
- Compulsory Registration of Marriage: All marriages need to be registered within 60 days of ceremony failing which there is a monetary fine of Rs 20,000. However, the marriage will not be annulled for failing to register the marriage.
- Common age of marriage for all communities (18 for women and 21 for men).
- Bigamy and polygamy have been banned.
- Right to remarry following a divorce. So, it indirectly bans certain marriage practices like Iddat and Nikah Halala. Forceful adherence to these activities has been criminalized.
- Provides for gender equality in matters of divorce.
- Custody of a child up to 5 years of age will remain with the mother following a divorce.
- Inheritance and Succession
- Influenced by Indian Succession Act, 1925
- Allows Muslim communities to transfer any amount of property according to their will and not just one-third as currently followed under their religious texts.
- No difference between ancestral property and self-acquired property for intestate succession for Hindus. Note:
- No difference between ancestral property and self-acquired property for intestate succession for Hindus.
| Succession | |
| Inte-state succession: Succession through a will | Testamentary Succession: Succession in the absence of a will |
- Defines a list of class of heirs to the property and its inheritance.
| Class-1 heirs | Class-2 heirs | Others |
| Children, widow, parents, etc. | Siblings, nieces, nephews, grandparents, etc. | Anyone most closely related to the deceased person |
- Elevates both mother and father as class-1 heir in case of intestate succession, which till now included only the mother.
- Equal property rights for sons and daughters across all classes.
- Contains provision for disqualification from inheritance in cases of murder or remarriage before the death of the person.
- Note: Disease or deformity of heir is not a ground for disqualification.
- Note: Adopted children, illegitimate children, children born through surrogacy and children born through assisted reproductive technology are all considered to be biological children.
- Live-in relationship
- Defines the live-in relationship explicitly ‘as a relationship between a man and a woman (partners), who cohabit in a shared relationship in the mature of marriage.
- Makes registration of live-in relationship mandatory, failing which can lead to a jail term of up to three months.
- Termination of relationship also requires the couple to notify to the authority, failure of which can be penalized.
- Provides woman with right to claim maintenance when deserted by their live-in partner.
- This provision is applicable to all those living in Uttarakhand as well as residents of Uttarakhand living elsewhere in India.
Issues/Concerns/Criticisms of Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code:
- Not comprehensive: The UCC code excludes the tribals from its ambit of application. Thus, a wide population will be free to follow its own customs for marriage, succession and inheritance.
- Invalidates homosexual live-in relations: Live-in relationship provision recognizes only the heterosexual relationship, thus violating the judicial order in Navtej Singh Johar case.
- Lack of synergy: The UCC keeps minimum age of marriage for women at 18 years only. But, Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 at Union level seeks to raise the age of marriage for women to 21. Thus, highlighting a conflict between the two.
- Violates fundamental rights: Some critics see it as impinging upon the right to freedom of religion of Muslim communities.
- Invasion of individual autonomy and privacy: Mandatory registration of live-in relationship and provision for informing the parents in case either partner is less than 21 years of age seem to be violating Supreme Court’s judgement on freedom to choose life partner (Joseph Shine Case).
- Removal of distinction between separate and coparcenary joint family property: It may so happen that now the entire property gets willed away to sons excluding females from the guarantee of inheriting property. Thus, reinforcing patriarchy.
- Class 1 heir now includes intestate’s father: Now, the mother would get half of what she would have got under Hindu Succession Amendment Act,2005. Thus, reducing mother’s share.
- Inappropriate criteria of disqualification: A widow or widower of any predeceased relative of an intestate loses the right to inherit it s/he remarries.
- For a Christian Women, who would have received half the intestate’s property will get less under the UCC since, the property will be shared equally with children.
- Lack of ‘uniformity’: If every state were to enact their separate UCCs then there will 28 different UCCs which contradicts the claim of uniformity.
Conclusion:
In this regard, it will be important to see the wider implications of this new UCC. Going forward, this code can serve as a learning benchmark for future laws in this aspect, most importantly being the national level UCC which has been seen imminent by Supreme Court in Shah Bano case.