The BJP-led Uttarakhand government will convene a special Assembly session in the week immediately after Diwali to discuss and pass the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, reports The Indian Express, citing sources.
The five-member committee, led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, is expected to hand over its report to the government soon.
The Bill’s broader focus is on uniformity in personal laws such as marriage registration, divorce, property rights, inter-state property rights, maintenance, custody of children, among others.
The committee’s recommendation says the marriageable age for women should be retained as 18, and doesn’t suggest raising it to 21.
Additionally, Registration of live-in relationships will also be mandatory.
On May 27 last year, the Pushkar Dhami-led government had set up the expert committee for the implementation of the UCC, and it was one of the major poll planks of the BJP in the run-up to the state Assembly elections last year.
After being voted to power for a second consecutive term, Dhami gave his nod to setting up a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai to draft the UCC at the very first cabinet meeting headed by him.
The expert panel whose tenure was extended for a third time recently till December has taken opinions from 2.33 lakh people and different organisations, institutions and tribal groups before preparing the draft. The five-member committee got its first extension of six months in November 2022 and second of four months in May this year.
On October 6, Dhami said that the draft of the UCC was almost ready.
“The drafting and compilation work of the UCC is almost complete. We will start taking steps towards its implementation and its various provisions as soon as its draft is submitted to us,” Dhami had said, as quoted by PTI.