When Law Seeks to Make the State the Big Brother

Independent India's first uniform civil code (UCC) could have been an opportunity to showcase a progressive template.

- Namita Bhandare

Independent India's first uniform civil code (UCC) could have been an opportunity to showcase a progressive template. It ought to have restricted itself to marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, and inheritance—areas governed by different personal laws that create discrepancy among citizens. Instead, the state of Uttarakhand has taken on the role of morality police by inserting a clause that requires couples cohabitating together to register on an online portal.

It will require certification by a religious leader that the couple is eligible to marry should they so desire. It is an odd requirement for a supposedly secular law. Clearly, interfaith couples who already find it tough to marry because of existing so-called anti-conversion laws in eight states will now find even living together impossibly hard.