New Delhi: Raising the marriageable age for women and suggestions on inheritance laws are among the recommendations made by the Uttarakhand government’s expert committee on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), ThePrint has learnt.
Sources said the committee is likely to push for a ban on polygamy and polyandry, and has also touched upon live-in relationships in the draft. The draft is likely to be submitted to the government mid-July.
Committee chairperson Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai said at a press conference here Friday that the draft of the proposed UCC for the state was ready. This comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for uniform laws for people across communities earlier this week.
Uttarakhand’s expert committee was constituted by the state government last year to examine the various existing laws regulating personal civil matters in the state.
The five-member committee — including retired High Court judge Permod Kohli, social activist Manu Gaur, former chief secretary Shatrughan Singh and Doon University vice-chancellor Surekha Dangwal — interacted with representatives of political parties, state statutory commissions and leaders of various religious denominations to formulate the draft.
The panel received a number of suggestions on registration of live-in relations as well as uniformity in marriageable age for men and women. “Live-in relations are the reality of today and we have touched upon the issue in the report,” a committee member said to ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
“As far as increasing the marriageable age is concerned, we have not focused on any particular community or religion. The idea is to bring in uniformity across faiths and ensure greater women empowerment,” said a source.
Committee chair Desai said, “Members of the Law Commission of India interacted with members of the expert committee on 2 June 2023 where we provided them details as to what all we have done and the interactions we had.” She added that the panel has drafted the code taking into account opinions of people across the state and even looked at laws in select countries.
Desai said that gender equality and empowerment were the prime areas for the committee and suggestions were made keeping them in mind.
“As far as increasing the marriageable age is concerned, we got suggestions from women across the spectrum and some even suggested raising it to 25. We have provided scientific reasoning for increasing the age. We respect culture and tradition but those who have been misusing them will have to change as far as our suggestions are concerned,” said the committee member quoted earlier.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also Read: UCC is Modi’s nuclear button—split Indian politics between Hindu-lovers, Muslim-appeasers