India News | Preserving Uttarakhand's Demography Only Purpose of Registration Under UCC: Panel Member

Dehradun, Feb 6 (PTI) Surekha Dangwal, a member of the expert committee that drafted Uttarakhand's Uniform Civil Code (UCC), clarified on Thursday that the mandatory registration of marriage, divorce and live-in relationships under the UCC has nothing to do with the domicile or permanent residence certificate of the state.

All the people living in Uttarakhand for at least one year have been brought under its purview so that the demography of Uttarakhand can be preserved, Dangwal, who is also the vice chancellor of Doon University, said in a statement.

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"UCC is related to services like marriage, divorce, live-in and will. It is not possible to link it with permanent residence or domicile in any way.

"Apart from this, there are no additional benefits to be gained from UCC registration. Permanent residence in Uttarakhand will be decided according to the previous conditions. This subject was not even before the Uniform Civil Code Committee," she said.

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Registration under UCC is similar to the way a person can make his voter card if he has a normal residence anywhere. Through this, only personal laws have been regulated so that the society and culture of Uttarakhand can be protected. This will also ensure the protection of Uttarakhand's demography, she said.

Explaining further, she said people with criminal tendencies can also be controlled through this.

A large number of people from other states also live in Uttarakhand. They are taking advantage of the government schemes in the state. Such people will now be able to take advantage of government schemes only after getting registered, Dangwal said.

If this was applicable only to permanent residents, then many people coming from other states would have been left out of its scope, while they would have continued to take advantage of all the government schemes here, she said.

The purpose is to provide registration facility under UCC to all the people living in Uttarakhand and make the government's database richer.

This will only strengthen the institution of marriage, she said.

She said all types of registrations are being done under the code.

Dangwal, who was also a member of the panel that drafted the rules for UCC implementation, clarified that the documents given for live-in registration under UCC will be checked only at the level of the registrar. No other agency has a role in it, she added.

According to the UCC rules, on receipt of a live-in application, the registrar will only provide the statement of the live-in relationship electronically to the officer-in-charge of the local police station through the district superintendent of police. Any person, including the officer-in-charge of the local police station, will have access to this record only under the supervision of the superintendent of police.

It has been clarified in the rules that while sharing the information with the police, the registrar will have to clearly mention that the information related to the statement of live-in relationship is being provided only for archival purposes.

It is clear from this that a high level of confidentiality will be maintained in such an application, she said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)