AA Edit | UCC can’t be state-specific; ‘live-in’ rules are troubling

The Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2024, that the BJP government passed in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday appears to be the antithesis of the very idea our Constitution-makers proposed when they added Article 44 in the Constitution as part of the Directive Principles of State Policy. The article says “the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India”.

It is for the BJP, which is also the ruling party at the Centre, to explain how each state making its own UCC falls within the definition of the UCC which is specific that it will be in force “throughout the territory of India”. In fact, the Uttarakhand UCC gives exemption to the small minority community in the state, betraying the inapplicability of a uniform civil code even in a small state. 

A point of serious contestation will be compulsory registration of live-in relationships. It can be argued that the bill seeks to legalise such relationships. However, it does not require a deep understanding of sociology or the law to find that mandatory registration of live-in relationships runs contrary to its very idea.

We do have an institution called marriage, which is a contract between two persons, and to which the State is also a party through laws and regulations. People who do not want to go through the rigour of marriage choose live-in relationships but the Uttarakhand bill seeks to have a say even in such relationships.

The State could at best hold up registration as an option but making it mandatory and prescribing punishments including a jail term for those who fail to do so make a mockery of the very idea. It is all the more worrisome that the records are kept with the police, given the dubious history of the force across the country when it comes to parsing sociological nuances.  

Further, it is incomprehensible how the state of Uttarakhand will take action against those couples who live outside the state, as the bill suggests. 

The new code virtually bans polygamy, which is one of the aims of the code, by stating that a marriage may be solemnised between a man and a woman only if “neither party has a spouse living at the time of marriage”. It is indeed a welcome attempt to introduce advancements of the human civilisation in our very own society. But it remains to be seen if such a provision contradicts the personal laws of communities which are protected under the Constitution.

The provision to ensure equal rights in property to the sons and daughters of all faiths is also a welcome move. Courts now consider children born in a marriage or outside it as having equal rights and the bill seeks to put a stamp of approval on it.

The founding fathers were mindful of the diversity of this country, India that is Bharat, and hence placed the UCC as a directive principle, or a desirable goal, in the Constitution. But we, as a nation, will have to travel a lot before bringing in a common law that can govern the private lives of all its citizens.

The government of Uttarakhand, the Union government and the BJP which controls both must step back a bit and ponder how the clamour for a UCC can benefit the people. A UCC must reflect the thoughtfulness of a society about its own realities. It should not be a product of political expediency of the ruling party.