An Examination Of The Legal Position Of Cohabitation Under The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code: A Critique Considering Cultural Ethos And Traditional Roots
- IJLLR Journal
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Adv. Mayank Raj Vijay Kumar Sharma, Maharashtra & Goa Bar Council
Introduction
Marriage in India has never really been anything but a private relationship between two people. Marriage has been regarded formally as a sacred institution because of the influences of religion, tradition, culture, and even mere social expectations surrounding marriage. While it can also be considered as just an obligation (hence a sanskara), and fundamentally to create family and social order, in the western world marriage is often thought of as simply a contract subject to fairly simple form of dissolution. Surely, for many marrying is a social expectation, however, as we noted in this discussion it is more than that, it is also about carrying traditions and societal recognition of family, a continuity of societal obligations relating to tradition, maintaining continuity in our communities. In this context, Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code, 2024 (UCC), which formally recognizing and regulates 'live-in' relationships would seem to pose some serious legal and moral dilemmas. While the Code purports to uphold the rights and interests of women and children and implements protection from exploitation; formalizing and recognizing live-in relationship as an institution in a matter of protection would produce a significant rupture in marriage and family which Indians have traditionally related to family. While it may appear progressive on the surface, the law undermines the continuity of what binds the connective tissue of Indian society, on a structural level that goes far beyond legality. The present essay will discuss in depth the legal recognition of live-in relationships in the Uttarakhand UCC by exploring why it should either not be given legal status or regulated at all in the cultural framework of Indian society.
It is argued that legal recognition of live-ins creates ambiguity regarding the core notion of marriage, is detrimental to cultural values and is an imposition of Western individualistic notions on a collectivist society with historical ties to responsibilities to family.
