NEW DELHI, Dec 17: In a setback to the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand, the Governor Lt. Gen. Gurmit Singh (Retd.) has returned the amendment Bills related to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the State’s Freedom of Religion and Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Act, citing technical flaws.
Sources in the government confirmed that the Governor’s office has returned the Bills. “Apart from some grammatical and technical errors, the Governor has also raised issues with the punishment term for a couple of offenses in the new legislations,” officials said.
He added that since the Bills have now come back from the Governor’s office, they will have to be redrafted, removing the mistakes pointed out and addressing other technical glitches. “The government will then be left with two options, either pass the amendments by bringing an ordinance or get them passed again in the State Assembly and send them further for the Governor’s consideration,” the official added.
The opposition Congress alleged that it could be a deliberate tactical move by the Dhami government to keep the touchy issues alive till the elections to the state Assembly due in early by re-passing the bills on the eve of the polling.
Both the religious conversion and UCC Bills were among the most ambitious legislations introduced by the BJP government led by Mr Dhami and were widely opposed by the Congress and civil rights groups, who termed them an attack on the minority community.
The UCC was passed in January 2024, and the government carried an amendment to the legislation during the monsoon session of the State Assembly in August this year. Among several changes, the government increased the punishment to up to seven years for those living in live-in relationships even after being married to someone else. Similar punishment was proposed for those who entered into a relationship by force, pressure or fraud. Section 390-A, a new insertion, vested the Registrar General with powers to cancel registrations related to marriage, divorce, live-in relationships or inheritance under Section 12.
While the State already had an anti-conversion law enacted in 2018, the government amended it in 2022 and again in 2025. This time, jail sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment were proposed for persons found guilty of “forced conversions.” Earlier, the maximum jail term for a “forced conversion” was 10 years.
Although the State government has claimed that the Governor’s office returned the Bills due to minor faults, the Congress termed the move a tactic to keep the issues alive in public memory ahead of the Assembly elections due in 2027.
“If they were just minor flaws, the Governor’s office could have unofficially sent them back for corrections. Sending them with a message is sufficient to ascertain that either he is totally unhappy with the legislations or it is just a tactic of the government to recall the Bills and once again pass them in the Assembly sometime around the elections which are due in early 2027 because the BJP has already used all its divisive tactics to win elections and now they are left with nothing new,” All India Congress Committee member and Uttarakhand Congress vice president Suryakant Dhasmana said.
(Rohit Kumar)
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