Uttarakhand UCC and Gender Justice

Implications.
A ringing voice vote in the assembly of Uttarakhand marked a new era of religious
uniformity in the state. The code brought in on (DATE), has broken a colonial era legal
roadblock and finally implemented a law that Dr. Ambedkar himself hoped to see one day
materialise. This makes it so that no matter what your religion, the law you follow for
marriage, cohabitation, divorce and even succession will be as prescribed by the same code.
As its name, uniform civil code suggests, it will nullify separate laws that governed Islam,
Christianity, and other religions, for not only residents of Uttarakhand but also for people
merely living in the state.1 Even residents of Uttarakhand living in other parts of the country
can, if they want, avail this act while registering their union2.

The law paves a way for banning of practices like Halala (the mandatory period of waiting in
Islam after divorce) as well as re-affirming that practices like triple-talaq, that were
inherently biased against women would not only be banned but penalised 3. Apart from that,
the practice of polygamy that was allowed under Sharia4 would also now be considered under
the crime of bigamy and penalised. This has protected Muslim women in this institution of
marriage more than ever before. Finally, comes the protection afforded to children of all
backgrounds by fixing the age of marriage at 18 years for women and 21 for men 5. This step
has ensured that no child, no matter what custom they belong to, would be forced down the
dark path of child marriage. This piece of legislation tries to being at its heart an era of
gender equality and uniformity.

The law however, is not free from its faults. While it does finally recognize live in
relationships as valid unions, it absolutely fails at the point of protecting the people indulging
in the same. The point of failure is that instead of making registration voluntary, the code
makes it mandatory to register within a month of the live in starting and actually penalises
non-registration6. While at its heart the rule seeks to protect women from domestic violence,
it absolutely ignores the fact that a relationship between consenting adults is a private matter
and making registration mandatory is a big breach of that privacy. What is even worse is that
a registrar can call anyone7 to fact check the relationship. That means parents, neighbours,
even other relatives can be made a part to this private matter, the fact that live-ins are not
very socially accepted only exacerbates the situation. The registration also makes it easy for
people with an ill eye towards the relationship to misuse it, the plight of inter-caste, inter-
faith and especially homosexual couples is very plain to see.

1
Section 6, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.
2
Section 6, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.
3
Section 25, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.
4
The Muslim Marriages Act,
5
Section 4, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.
6
Section 378, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.
7
Section 381, The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024.