government simultaneously. The court has directed the state government to file a reply within six weeks on the allegations made in the petitions. The case was heard before a division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Ashish Naithani. Bhimtal resident Suresh Singh Negi had filed a petition challenging various provisions of the UCC. This mainly includes the provision of live-in relationship. Apart from this, some other provisions including ignoring the marriage system of Muslims, Parsis etc. in the UCC have also been challenged. In Negi’s PIL, live-in relationship has been declared unconstitutional. The petition said that while for a normal marriage, the age of the boy must be 21 and the girl 18 years, in live-in relationship, the age of both has been fixed at 18 years. It is also not clear whether their children will be considered legitimate or illegitimate. If a person wants to get rid of a live-in relationship, he can leave his partner within 15 days by giving a simple application to the registrar, whereas in a normal marriage, the entire judicial process has to be followed to get a divorce. Divorce happens after decades, that too by giving full maintenance.
At the same time, Elmasuddin Siddiqui of Dehradun has also filed a writ petition challenging many provisions of UCC 2025, in which it has been mentioned that the customs of minorities have been ignored. It has been said in this petition that while passing the UCC bill, the state government has ignored Islamic customs, Quran and its other provisions. For example, according to the Quran and its verses, after the death of the husband, the wife prays for 40 days for the peace of his soul. This has been banned in UCC.
The petition said that according to Shariat, there is a provision in Islam to marry someone other than relatives. It is not allowed in UCC. According to Shariat, a father can divide his property among all his sons and keep a part of it with himself and donate it whenever he wants. UCC does not allow this either. The petition seeks amendment in all the above provisions.
