Guwahati: A day after being constituted, the Assam cabinet in its first meeting on Wednesday cleared the decks for implementing a uniform civil code (UCC) in the state.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the cabinet had approved the draft of the proposed law, which would not interfere with any religious traditions and would exempt the tribal population of both the plains and the hills.“The UCC Bill will be laid before the assembly on May 26. This is in sync with the commitment we made during the election,” Sarma said.He added that Assam’s UCC aligns with similar codes already in place in Goa, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat, but is tailored to the state’s own social and cultural realities.“It will not interfere with how people practise their religion, customs, or traditions. How one offers prayers, performs namaz, or conducts chaklang or Sikh marriages — none of these will come under the purview of the UCC,” Sarma said.He underlined that the state code will focus on four key areas — fixing the minimum age for marriage, prohibiting polygamy, ensuring equal property rights for sons and daughters, and mandating registration of live-in relationships, marriages, and divorces.“We have customised the UCC to suit Assam’s requirements. The entire tribal population — both in the hills and the plains — will be exempted. All rituals, traditions, and customary practices of the people of Assam will remain outside its scope,” he said.The exemption for tribals is significant in Assam, where nearly 13% of the population belongs to Scheduled Tribes spread across plains and hill districts. By carving them out of the UCC’s ambit, the govt aims to protect their long-guarded customary laws on marriage, inheritance, and social practices.Once promulgated, the UCC will place Assam alongside states like Uttarakhand and Gujarat, which passed similar laws with exemptions for tribal populations. Goa, by contrast, has had a civil code since colonial times, though with certain community-specific provisions.With NDA securing a record 102 seats in the 126-member assembly, including 82 for the BJP, the govt is comfortably placed to pass the proposed legislation.In 2024, during the NDA 2.0 tenure, the British-era Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935, was repealed, ending the menace of child marriage. Last year, a new law was enacted prohibiting and eliminating polygamy in the state. Both these laws were seen as steps toward implementing the UCC.
