UCC: A week after the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, the Uttarakhand government has registered the first live-in relationship. By the evening of 4 February, the state government had received six applications for live in registration, one of which was approved.
Uttarakhand Home Secretary Shailesh Bagoli said that the details of the applicants are encrypted and officials can only see the number of applications and registrations, while their details will remain with the concerned registrar only. “The system is safe, and we take care against any violation of private information on the couples applying for registration,” he said. Bagoli said that it is impossible to get such details for a third party.
The Uttarakhand government had implemented UCC rules on 27 January to regulate the live-in relationship. For registration, the couple will have to fill the 16-page form and get a certificate from the religious leader, which shows that they are eligible to marry if they wish.
– Uttarakhand UCC makes it mandatory to register all live-in relationship. This also applies to residents of Uttarakhand and people living in other places in India.
– Registration in UCC rules is only for “objectives of keeping records” and the registrar needs these registrations to forward local police stations, where the concerned couples live.
– Activist organizations have expressed concern about the violation of privacy. They say that the Supreme Court has guaranteed that privacy is an inseparable right until violence occurs. But UCC gives anyone including your neighbor to complain (against live-in couples).
– Representatives of parties like CPIM, CPIML and Samajwadi Party have announced a public awareness campaign against UCC and said that a state level conference will be held in Dehradun next month.