Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The much publicised Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would be implemented in Uttarakhand from Monday.
According to an official communiqué issued by the Uttarakhand government, chief minister Pushker Singh Dhami would launch the UCC portal and rules on Monday. With this Uttarakhand would become the first state in the country to have the UCC.
Once the portal was launched, the online registrations for the marriages, divorce, live-in relationship, breaking the live-in relationships and inheritance would begin, the officials said in Dehradun.
The state cabinet had accorded its approval to the rules in its meeting on Saturday.
The UCC contained the same law for marriages, divorce, maintenance and inheritance. It also made registration of the marriage mandatory and provided for a fine of Rs 25 thousand for failing to do so. Those failing to get their marriage registered would not be eligible to receive any benefits from the government. It also provided for identical grounds to the husband and wife in cases of divorce and a ban on polygamy.
It also provided for maintenance for the parents of the wife by the husband in the event of her death and if there is no one else to take care of them and equal rights for Muslim women in cases of adoption.
The UCC provided for a ban on 'iddat' (the period a Muslim woman must observe after the death of her husband or after a divorce and in this period she can not marry another man) and 'halala' (when a man irrevocably divorces his wife and wants to marry her again. In that case the woman will have to marry another man, get divorce, observe the period of iddat and only then can she marry the first husband).
The UCC provides for equal rights for sons and daughters and also does not differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate children. Children through surrogacy or assisted reproductive technology would also be considered as biological children.