A "progressive” Uniform Civil Code (UCC), providing for same sex marriage and marriage of transgenders has been submitted to the Law Commission of India.
The Narendra Modi government in 2016 had asked the Law Commission to study in detail all issues pertaining to the UCC and submit a report to the government. Subsequently, the panel in October 2016 invited public opinion on the subject putting up a set of questionnaire.
The draft of the UCC has been prepared by lawyer Dushyant and signed by eminent personalities like historian Syed Irfan Habib and Magsaysay award winner Bezwada Wilson, was submitted to Commission chairman Justice (retired) BS Chauhan.
The others to sign are vocalist TM Krishna, journalist Nilanjana Roy, Major Gen S Vombetkere (retd), historian Mukul Kesavan, and actress Gul Panag. The draft UCC has also been endorsed by former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee.
Providing for homosexual marriages and live-in, the draft UCC rules out any kind of gender-based discrimination for marriage, adoption, custody of child/children and inheritance.
It defines marriage as “the legal union as prescribed under this Act of a man with a woman, a man with another man, a woman with another woman a transgender with another transgender or a transgender with a man or a woman".
Partnership has been defined as living together of a man with a woman, a man with another man, a woman with another woman a transgender with another transgender or a transgender with a man or a woman.
It also provides that any two person who have been in partnership for more than two years shall have same rights and obligations towards each other as a married couple. The draft also bars more than one such partnership at a time. Read more via Catch News