Ban polygamy, says U'khand UCC panel

GENDER EQUALITY IS THE CENTRAL THEME OF THE 740-PAGE REPORT; TRIBAL PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LEFT OUT OF ITS AMBIT

A five-member committee looking into the possibility of implementing Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand submitted its draft report to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday, setting the ball rolling for the fulfilment of a decades-old ideological goal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the hill state.

The central theme of the 740-page, four-volume, report is gender equality and tribals have been kept out of its ambit, said a member of the committee, requesting anonymity. The report includes draft provisions for equal rights for women in inheritance in ancestral properties, equal rights to adopt and divorce, and a ban on polygamy regardless of religion, said the committee member quoted above.

The panel has asked for polygamy to be banned and the minimum age of marriage for women to be 18 across religions, the member added. While the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act does proscribe marriage under the age of 18 for women and under the age of 21 for men, some personal laws allow marriage upon the attainment of puberty. This difference, and questions of what takes precedence over the other have led to various cases across high courts, and is now being adjudicated in the Supreme Court since January 2023.

The panel has also suggested a provision for mandatory registration or self-declaration for live-in relationships, and weighed in on Islamic practices such as halala, iddat and some forms of triple talaq, said the member.

Dhami has already said that a draft bill based on the report of the panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, will be brought in the upcoming session of the assembly that commences on Monday.