The State of Uttarakhand on Monday scripted history by becoming the first state in the country to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
A notification issued by the Uttarakhand government said that Governor Gurmit Singh, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, 2024 (Act no 3 of 2024), appointed January 27, 2025 as the date on which the said Code shall come into force.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated the UCC rules manual and the application portal for the new rules at his camp office in Dehradun.
The State Cabinet had approved the rules manual on January 20, 2025.
In 2024, President Droupadi Murmu had given her nod to Uttarakhand’s UCC Bill.
The State Assembly had passed the UCC Bill on February 7, 2024, after a five-member panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai handed over the UCC final report to the Chief Minister.
The Act, which has 392 Sections under seven schedules, is based on over a 750-page draft, spread in four volumes, prepared by an expert panel.
With a view to bringing the various facets of civil life under a single law, the UCC lays out what is permissible and what is prohibited in relationships across faiths, subject to personal customary laws.