Uttarakhand’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, introduced the Uniform Civil Code Bill in the state assembly. The purpose of the bill is to provide equal rights to all state citizens, regardless of their gender, caste, religion, or financial situation.
The following are some of the bill’s salient features:
Discrimination in inheritance laws is abolished
According to the bill, bias and anomalies are still seen in the will and inheritance processes, even in the face of established laws. For instance, in the event that his child passes away, a father is not entitled to a portion of the child’s assets. The father does not have any rights; only the mother, wife, and children do. That’s what the bill seeks to alter.
In a similar vein, the rights of a deceased person’s children to inherit vary according to their gender; this includes married and single daughters. With the passage of the new bill, this will no longer be the case, and all children of a person, regardless of gender or marital status, will have equal inheritance rights.
The bill claims to have addressed all inequities, including the unfairness that female offspring still endure when inheriting agricultural land based on their gender.
“Even if a man and woman’s relationship is not lawful or legitimate, no child is illegitimate.”
According to the bill, a child is never “illegitimate,” but a man and a woman’s consenting relationship may be either legitimate or illegitimate depending on societal norms. The bill aims to give children born outside of socially acceptable or “legitimate” partnerships equal rights to inheritance. The bill aims to grant these children dignity and equal inheritance rights by stating that a child is born innocent, no matter what the social or legal sanctity of the parent-child relationship may be or how they are raised.
The bill also guarantees that an unborn child of a deceased person has equal rights to parental property by defining in Section 55 the rights of a foetus under inheritance laws.
“On parental property, Ravan Kumar and Aurangzeb cannot have the same rights.”
According to the bill, some kids take good care of their elderly parents, but some don’t, and some even go so far as to harm or kill their parents in order to get ownership of their belongings. The bill’s Section 58 has clauses that guarantee a parent’s killer will never be able to inherit their property.
In addition to addressing the disparities and obstacles associated with creating a last will and testament, the Bill guarantees that anyone can create a will, designate any individual as their heir, and divide their assets at any time during their life in accordance with their own judgement and will. Even an existing will made in their name may be revoked or withdrawn. The terms of the law, like other laws, apply to all state inhabitants equally, irrespective of their gender, caste, or religion.
Marriage laws, the age at which one can get married, and the fact that same-sex unions are not legally valid
According to the bill, a boy must be 21 years old to be married, and a girl must be 18 years old. Furthermore, the bill makes it very evident that a marriage between a man and a woman is the sole union that is recognised as lawful. In addition, a man or a woman cannot get remarried while their ex-spouse is still alive. The new bill severely restricts instant talaq, nikah halala, and remarriage without divorce. According to the bill, social evils like halala and iddat ought to be eradicated. All religions forbid polygamy, although Muslim personal law permits it in India.
Additionally, the bill stipulates that if one spouse is compelled to change their religion after marriage, they may file for divorce and collect maintenance.
It is now required to register a marriage. A marriage can be registered at the district, state, municipality, NAC, or Gramme Panchayat level. A special website has been launched to make the registration process easier to grasp for couples.
Government programmes intended for families and couples are no longer available to couples who have not registered their marriage. The bill further notes that, while an unregistered marriage cannot be declared invalid, the restriction on government services being available exclusively to registered couples is meant to encourage marriage registrations.
It is forbidden to practice child marriage, polygamy, triple talaq, Devdasi, and dowry.
The bill underscores that women have been disproportionately affected by the absence of a uniform civil code encompassing all religions, as numerous social ills such as child marriage, Devdasi, Triple Talaq, and Halala thrive under the cover of “religious practice.” In the end, these social ills only affect women and strip them of their rights as Indian citizens.
According to the bill, UCC can assist protracted judicial issues in coming to a resolution and alter the appalling circumstances in which many women, particularly Muslim women, find themselves as a result of societal ills that are seen to be under “religious sanction.”
Guidelines for cohabitation
The bill asserts that despite the conservative Indian family system’s socio-cultural norms, the number of live-in partnerships is rising. It claims that by doing this, it is working to protect young people’s safety and future.
According to the bill, a woman must be at least 18 years old to be in a live-in relationship, and all such relationships must be registered. In order to inform their parents of the status of the relationship and the location of their ward’s residence, the parents of the boy or girl starting a live-in relationship who is younger than 21 must also receive notification of the registration of the relationship.
According to the bill, the rules have been maintained to guard against abuse, adultery, and exploitation, as well as to preserve the rights of any children resulting from cohabitation. Simultaneously, the clause will guarantee that anyone embarking on a live-in partnership is fully informed about the identity, name, and religious background of their flatmate.
The BJP comfortably controls the Uttarakhand assembly. Passage of the bill is anticipated.
