Madhya Pradesh assembly passes UCC Bill amid protest by Congress
The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, 2026 by voice vote during the Monsoon Session
The bill bans polygamy, and prohibits triple talaq and nikah halala; it also makes registration of live-in relationships compulsory, with penalties for non-registration
Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), who together form roughly one-fifth of the state's population, are excluded from the bill's scope to preserve their customary personal law
Madhya Pradesh becomes the fourth state to move toward a state-level UCC, after Uttarakhand (2024), Gujarat (2026), and Assam (2026)
The bill was tabled and passed amid opposition demands that it be referred to a select committee and linked to separate OBC reservation demands; the House was adjourned briefly more than once amid sloganeering
Article 44 — Uniform Civil Code as a Directive Principle
Article 44 is a Directive Principle of State Policy (Part IV) which states that "the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India." It aims at uniformity in personal law matters — marriage, divorce, succession, adoption, and maintenance — across religious communities, replacing the current system where personal laws vary by religion.
Key Details
- DPSPs are non-justiciable (Article 37) — they are not enforceable in court but are "fundamental in the governance of the country"
- During Constituent Assembly debates, the framers placed UCC in Part IV (not Part III, Fundamental Rights) as a compromise after objections that a mandatory code would infringe religious personal law practices
- Goa is the only pre-existing example of a common civil code in India, inherited from the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867 — distinct from the new state-level UCC laws being enacted post-2024
- Because Entry 5 of the Concurrent List covers "marriage and divorce," both Parliament and state legislatures can legislate on personal law matters, which is the constitutional basis for state-specific UCC bills
The Madhya Pradesh bill is a state-level legislative attempt to give effect to the Article 44 directive, following the template set by Uttarakhand's 2024 Uniform Civil Code Act — making Article 44's transition from an unenforceable directive to enacted state law a live, testable trend.
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 — Triple Talaq
This central Act criminalises instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat), following the Supreme Court's 2017 ruling declaring the practice unconstitutional. It applies nationwide to Muslim marriages, independent of any state UCC.
Key Details
- The Supreme Court declared talaq-e-biddat unconstitutional in Shayara Bano v. Union of India (August 2017)
- The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 followed a September 2018 ordinance and made pronouncing triple talaq — spoken, written, or electronic — a cognisable, non-bailable offence punishable with up to three years' imprisonment and a fine
- The Act also entitles the wife to subsistence allowance and custody of minor children
The Madhya Pradesh UCC bill's ban on triple talaq and nikah halala overlaps with protections already codified at the central level in 2019, illustrating how state UCC legislation can duplicate or extend existing central personal-law reform.
Constitutional Basis for Excluding Scheduled Tribes from UCC
State UCC laws (Uttarakhand 2024, and now Madhya Pradesh) have consistently exempted Scheduled Tribes from their scope, citing the need to protect customary tribal social structures — a principle rooted in the Constitution's separate scheme for tribal governance.
Key Details
- Article 244 read with the Fifth Schedule provides special administrative arrangements for "Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes" in most states, preserving space for customary law and tribal self-governance
- Article 371A gives Nagaland a specific carve-out: no Act of Parliament applies to matters of Naga religious or social practice, customary law, or land ownership unless the Nagaland Assembly so resolves — a stronger, state-specific version of the same underlying principle of protecting tribal customary law from uniform central legislation
- Uttarakhand's 2024 UCC Act similarly exempted its Scheduled Tribes (about 2.9% of that state's population) from the code
Madhya Pradesh's exclusion of STs/PVTGs (about one-fifth of the state's population, a much larger share than Uttarakhand's) follows the same constitutional logic — using the Fifth Schedule/Article 244 framework to insulate tribal customary law even while extending a common code to the rest of the population.
Live-In Relationships and the Law
Mandatory registration of live-in relationships is a distinctive feature of the new state UCC laws, going beyond the limited recognition live-in relationships have received so far under central law.
Key Details
- Under the existing Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, a live-in partner can claim protection only if the relationship qualifies as "in the nature of marriage" under Section 2(f)
- In Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma (2013), the Supreme Court held that a live-in relationship where one partner is already validly married to someone else does not qualify as "in the nature of marriage," and laid down broader guiding factors for when a live-in relationship attracts DV Act protection
- State UCC laws convert this judicially-evolved, case-by-case recognition into a mandatory registration regime, with penalties (imprisonment/fine) for non-compliance
The Madhya Pradesh bill's compulsory live-in registration requirement moves India from court-decided recognition of live-in relationships toward statutory, ex-ante regulation — a significant shift in how personal relationships outside marriage are treated in law.
- Madhya Pradesh is the fourth state to pass a UCC law, after Uttarakhand (February 2024), Gujarat (2026), and Assam (2026)
- Uttarakhand's UCC Act received presidential assent on 13 March 2024, becoming the first state UCC in independent India
- The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 prescribes up to three years' imprisonment for triple talaq
- Article 44 falls under Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy); DPSPs are non-justiciable under Article 37
- Entry 5, Concurrent List (Seventh Schedule) covers "marriage and divorce," enabling both central and state legislation on personal law