By Liz Mathew
THE Uniform Civil Code (UCC) manual of rules approved by the Uttarakhand government on Monday steers clear of the contentious proposals suggesting a separate process to settle disputes over personal laws.
According to informed sources, only the registration of marriage, divorce and live-ins has been retained in the rules that are set to be notified, after the hurriedly convened Cabinet meeting by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday approved them for implementation. The Uttarakhand UCC law was expected to be a template for other states ruled by the BJP. “But this would be damp squib,” said a highly placed source.
The enforcement of the UCC is expected to be announced on January 26, with the government waiting for the completion of the local body polls Thursday, for which the model code of conduct is on.
Sources said that the drafting and rules committee members have been left surprised by the government’s move to notify the rules without incorporating key recommendations of the almost 400-page report on the UCC, submitted in October last year.
A source said these recommendations could have “avoided the numerous disputes over divorce, maintenance, custody of children and succession among other things” arising from personal laws. Instead, sources said, as per the rules approved by the Cabinet Monday, the current judicial process over these issues will continue. “All these issues will be left to courts to resolve,” said a source.
“With the committee having made recommendations on the basis of ‘public demand’, the government would have to explain to the people in the state as to what was not constitutionally valid or legally permissible in the recommendations that these were not included,” a source said.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
