President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Gujarat and Assam Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bills, 2026, taking the number of states in independent India to codify a common set of personal laws to three, including Uttarakhand.
That objective has been realised in Gujarat today,” he said, adding that the law would address several issues relating to marriage, divorce, live-in relationships and succession that had previously been governed differently across communities and religious sects. Chief minister Bhupendra Patel tabled it a week after a panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai submitted its report. Gujarat BJP chief spokesperson Dr Anil Patel welcomed the President’s assent, saying that the legislation marked a significant step towards women’s empowerment and equality in the state. “When the architects of the Constitution, including Babasaheb Ambedkar, drafted the document, they clearly articulated the need for a Uniform Civil Code in the country.
The Gujarat Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, 2026, passed after an eight-hour debate on March 24, exempts the state’s Scheduled Tribe (ST) population.
Justice Desai had previously headed the committee that drafted the Uttarakhand code.
The Assam government had introduced the bill without constitution of an expert panel, as done by Uttarakhand and Gujarat governments. State Congress president Amit Chavda, however, criticised the UCC, saying that the BJP government had pushed through the legislation despite Gujarat’s diverse communities, traditions and customs. The legislation was passed by voice vote in the state assembly after more than five hours of discussion amid sloganeering from both ruling and Opposition benches.
He said the Congress had demanded that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee and that consultations be held across the state before it was passed. On the UCC, Congress leader Wazed Ali Choudhury said forcible implementation of UCC in a diverse country like India could create “social and religious tensions”. TMC MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed said, “I support few provisions of the new law like ban on triple talaq, child marriages, but there’s clear violation of the Quran’s guidelines.”
