Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill will be tabled in the upcoming session of Assembly after a draft report related to UCC got approved at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The UCC proposes uniform civil laws for all communities in the state.
“Today in the cabinet meeting, a proposal to bring a bill on Uniform Civil Code was unanimously passed in the upcoming Assembly session. We will table it in the Assembly. We will move forward in the direction to make it an Act,” ANI quoted Chief Minister Dhami as saying’ “The bill is likely to be tabled in the Uttarakhand Assembly on February 6.”
Earlier, a draft of the UCC was handed over to the Chief Minister by the five-member committee headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
Once implemented, Uttarakhand will become the first Indian state after independence to adopt the UCC.
The UCC drafting panel also comprised retired justice Pramod Kohli, social activist Manu Gaur, former Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Shatrughan Singh and ViceChancellor of Doon University, Surekha Dangwal. The drafting panel was given a total of four extensions.
The UCC will provide a legal framework for uniform marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance laws for all citizens, irrespective of their religion.
The passage of the UCC Bill will mark the fulfilment of a major promise made by the BJP to the people of the state in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly polls.
Earlier, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami informed that the draft report consists of 740 pages and has four volumes, which include suggestions from 2,33,000 people in the state.
“The village, which is known as the last village of India, was referred to by the PM as the first village, so the committee started the work of taking suggestions from their only, and other 43 places. A total of 2,33,000 people gave suggestions on it which includes 10 per cent families of Uttarakhand,” Chief Minister Dhami said.
At its very first meeting in the second term, in March 2022, the Dhami government decided to constitute a committee to prepare a draft for the UCC.
