Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government is following the path of Uttarakhand and implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state. The draft of the UCC Bill has been officially approved in a recent cabinet meeting. The main objective of this new law is to bring equality in personal matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance for all religions and castes. The same marriage rules will apply to all. In this draft, divided into a total of 2 parts and 7 chapters, registration of marriage has been made mandatory. However, marriage without registration will not be considered invalid, but the parties who do not get registration done within the stipulated time will have to face a penalty provision.
An important step has been taken towards implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state and preparations have already begun for bringing the bill. In this regard, a committee formed for the UCC submitted its final report to the Chief Minister. This report was handed over to the Chief Minister’s residence. It is noteworthy that this committee was formed on February 4, 2025 and after conducting a detailed study on various issues, it has now submitted a report with final recommendations.
The committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, submitted a report to the state government based on detailed studies, district visits gathering public opinions, and conducting public relations, and then submitting the report to the state government. The presentation made while submitting this report to the Chief Minister stated that a uniform legal framework for all religions and communities on issues like marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption has been suggested by the committee in this draft report.
In particular, equal rights and security of women have been given priority in this draft. Not only this, the geographical and cultural diversity of Gujarat has also been kept in mind in the report. Preparations have begun to introduce the UCC bill in Gujarat. The bill will be discussed today (March 17th) in the Business Advisory Committee meeting and the government is preparing to bring a total of 4 bills. The bill is likely to be presented in the house on March 24th.
Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar alleged, “Why can’t the election expenses be discussed in the house and what is being hidden in this discussion”. He also stated, “The election expense issue was included in the agenda in the supplementary demands of March 8, yet the discussion is being prevented”. He also mentioned deficiencies in government departments and asked about the reasons behind rejecting the cut motions.
On this issue, Minister Arjun Modhwadia responded by stating, “The Election Commission is a constitutional institution and it cannot be criticized in the house”. He clarified that cut motions are being placed as criticism of the Election Commission, therefore such discussion is not appropriate. After lengthy arguments, Speaker Shankar Chaudhary ruled that discussion on grant demands can only take place under the Speaker’s direction. He added, “High Court and Election Commission are autonomous institutions and cannot be discussed in the house since these institutions are not present in the house”.
What is UCC ?
There are two types of laws in the country – Criminal Law and Civil Law. Criminal law deals with cases like theft, robbery, assault. The law applies to people of every religion and community, while civil law deals with cases related to marriage and property, divorce, maintenance, etc. In India, marriage customs are different in different religions. This is the reason why this type of law is also called personal law.
Among Muslims, marriage and division of property are done according to Muslim law. Among Hindus, cases are handled according to Hindu Act. There is also a separate personal law for Christians and Sikhs. Through the Uniform Civil Code, personal law will be abolished and there will be uniform laws for all, no matter what religion or community they belong to, which is called the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
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