The story so far: The Uttarakhand Assembly is likely to pass the State’s Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill during its four-day-long session in February. A State-appointed panel constituted to draft the UCC submitted its final report to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on February 2.
The introduction of a UCC was a key poll promise of the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 general elections and was reiterated before the 2022 Legislative Assembly elections in Uttarakhand. Following the BJP’s electoral victory on May 27, 2022, the Uttarakhand government announced the constitution of a five-member committee led by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai to draft the legislation.
The committee received over 2.15 lakh suggestions from the public and held over 38 public meetings across the state over the course of preparing the draft. The government had granted four extensions to the committee within a span of 20 months for the submission of its report.
