Register live-in relationship or face 6-month jail; parental consent required: Uttarakhand UCC

As the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is enacted into law in Uttarakhand, those who are in or want to get into live-in relationships must register with officials. Those who fail to adhere to the rules will face a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 25,000 or both.

Individuals, who are in, or planning to enter into live-in relationships, should register themselves under the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand, once it comes into law. Those who fail to adhere to the rules will face a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 25,000 or both. For those under 21, parental approval is necessary, and they must provide a declaration to the Registrar specifying whether or not they live in Uttarakhand.

According to the proposed UCC in Uttarakhand, if individuals stay in a live-in relationship for more than a month without submitting a statement, they could be punished and sent to jail for up to three months or fined Rs 10,000 or both.

As per the draft report, mandatory registration of such relationships extends Uttarakhand residents “in a live-in relationship outside the State”.

If a live-in relationship is "against public policy and morality," it won't be registered. Examples of such situations are when one partner is a minor, married, or involved in another relationship, or if one partner's permission was acquired by "coercion, fraud, or misrepresentation (with regard to identity)".

One of the main features of the Uniform Civil Code's section on live-in partnerships, which was presented to the Uttarakhand Assembly on Tuesday morning, is that children born into live-in relationships would be legally recognised as such; that is, they "shall be a legitimate child of the couple."

A Uniform Civil Code, or UCC, is a body of legislation that applies to all residents and does not take religious principles into account when addressing issues related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and other private concerns. One of the main political promises made by the BJP in the lead-up to the party's victory in the previous year's assembly election was the creation of a unified civil code for Uttarakhand.