Uttarakhand’s mandatory registration of live-in relationships is absurd – legal experts explain why

Uttarakhand residents will soon have to register their live-in relationships or face imprisonment up to three months and a fine up to Rs 10,000, if the state enacts a new Bill tabled in the assembly on Tuesday morning.

Called the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand 2024, the bill seeks to replace religion-based personal laws governing marriage, divorce and succession in the state with a common set of laws.

In a first in India, it also introduces extensive regulation of live-in relationships, which have so far lacked a clear legal status in the country.

Scroll breaks down these provisions of the bill and explains why legal experts consider them to be problematic and puzzling.

Definition unclear

The bill mandates that all persons in live-in relationships within Uttarakhand, as well as all residents of the state temporarily living outside, must make a “statement of live-in relationship” to a registrar appointed for this purpose by the state government.

The bill defines a live-in relationship as a relationship between a man and a woman cohabiting “in a shared household through a relationship in the nature of marriage”. It is not clear anywhere in the bill what a “relationship in the nature of marriage” means. What is clear from the definition, though, is that it covers only...

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