Introduction:
THE Uttarakhand Civil Code Rules, 2025 (“The Rules”) came into effect on January 2, 2025, almost a year after the passing of the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, 2024 (“The Code”) which received the assent of the president on March 11, 2024. Recently, the UCC Portal was launched which inter alia allows the registration and termination of live-in relationships, marking the formal implementation of the code in the state.
The provisions related to recognition and regularisation of live-in relationships between consenting adults in the Code and in the subsequent Rules framed under it, has garnered widespread debates and discourse.
In India, live-in relationships, while not illegal, are considered to be taboo in society to the extent of being termed as “immoral”. For instance, in 2023, Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader Ajay Pratap Singh urged the government to make live-in relationships illegal on the grounds that, “Marriage and family ties are a cultural heritage in India. Our religious scriptures and customs do not grant recognition to live-ins”. Later that year, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Haryana Dharambir Singh called for a ban on live-in relationships, terming them a “dangerous disease” and a “Western concept” which is destroying Indian Culture.
