Overview
- The state cabinet approved the Uniform Civil Code draft at a special meeting on Sunday and the government will table the bill in the five-day Monsoon Session starting Monday.
- The draft imposes monogamy, makes registration of marriages and live-in relationships mandatory, sets minimum marriage ages at 21 for men and 18 for women, and criminalises remarriage without legal divorce.
- It prescribes penalties for certain conduct including prison terms reported up to five years for a married person entering a live-in relationship and bans practices such as instant triple talaq and nikah halala.
- A six-member committee led by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai prepared the multi-volume draft after extensive consultations that the government says produced roughly 958,000 submissions and a draft running to hundreds of sections.
- The bill exempts Scheduled Tribes on constitutional grounds and now faces legislative debate, likely opposition contestation, and potential legal challenges if it is passed and sent for the governor's assent.