Uttarakhand UCC procedures eased: Photos to be taken directly from Aadhaar, DigiLocker to be linked

“It has been discussed that for registration under the UCC, you will no longer be required to upload photos, and we will take these directly from Aadhaar cards. For acknowledgement of marriage, registrants will not need to submit details of their parents because we have eased it to facilitate the process with just their names. These proposals do not touch upon the character of the Act. All the provisions will stay intact,” Bagoli said.

A memorandum with details of the parents of a married couple had to be submitted to get it acknowledged under the UCC.

Additional Home Secretary Nivedita Kukreti said the new changes also include linking DigiLocker with registration certificates. DigiLocker, an initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, provides access to authentic digital documents to citizens’ digital document wallets and is touted as a secure cloud-based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents and certificates.

“This is only to simplify marriage registrations. These changes do not require an amendment,” she added.

Last month, during a public interest litigation hearing that challenged provisions of the UCC, the Uttarakhand High Court had asked the Solicitor General if the state could invite suggestions afresh and consider changes wherever required. “You can impress upon the state legislature to bring about necessary (changes),” a division bench of Justices Manoj Tiwari and Ashish Naithani said.

However, Bagoli said that they were not intimated with an order regarding this. “The state will submit its response on April 1. However, no changes of such nature are being discussed,” he added.

Aimed at regulating aspects such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and property succession, the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act, 2024 was passed in February last year, with the rules under it coming into effect on January 27, this year.

Live-in couples are required to register under the UCC, and Bagoli said that so far, 37 applications have been received under the live-in category and that 18 have been registered.