The President granted assent on September 17, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan records. The legislation was subsequently published in the Gujarat Government Gazette on October 1 as the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code, 2026, or Gujarat Act No. 15 of 2026.
The law does not take effect automatically with its publication. Its commencement clause provides that the state government will appoint the date on which it comes into force through a separate notification in the gazette. Gujarat must also frame and notify rules needed to administer the code.
The legislation creates a common statutory framework for personal civil matters across religious communities, while retaining specified constitutional exemptions. It covers marriage and divorce, succession and inheritance, and live-in relationships, including their registration and termination.
Members of Scheduled Tribes are excluded from the code. The exemption also extends to persons or groups whose customary rights are protected under Part XXI of the Constitution, which contains temporary, transitional and special provisions applying to specified states and communities.
The code extends throughout Gujarat and also applies to residents of the state who live outside its territorial boundaries, according to the legislation.
Among its central provisions, the law requires marriage registration and establishes common conditions for marriage. It prohibits a person from marrying while a spouse is living and prescribes a minimum marriage age of 21 for men and 18 for women. It also provides a statutory structure for divorce rather than leaving the matter to separate religion-based personal laws covered by the code.
The legislation also regulates live-in relationships. Partners are required to submit statements of their relationship to the designated registrar, subject to conditions and procedures laid down in the law. Children born from live-in relationships are recognised for legal purposes, while the code provides a mechanism for women to seek maintenance after desertion by a live-in partner.
Succession provisions set out rules for distribution of property where a person dies without a valid will. The framework provides inheritance rights without distinctions that existed under some personal-law systems and sets out shares and priorities among eligible heirs, including spouses, children and parents.
The Act also permits registration processes to be conducted through prescribed authorities and creates penalties for failures to comply, with operational details dependent on the rules that the government will issue.
The Gujarat Legislative Assembly passed the Bill on March 24 after a debate lasting more than seven hours. The measure had been prepared following recommendations from a state-appointed committee chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, which examined the proposed framework before submitting its report to the government.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel tabled the Bill in the Assembly. The state government presented the measure as an effort to establish uniformity in civil law and strengthen equal treatment in matters including marriage and inheritance. Opposition parties challenged aspects of the legislation during the Assembly debate, including its scope and the government’s approach to personal laws.
Presidential assent was required because the state legislation operates in fields where existing central laws and personal-law statutes may overlap. Article 254 of the Constitution provides a mechanism under which a state law on a Concurrent List subject that conflicts with an existing parliamentary law can prevail within that state when it has been reserved for, and receives, the President’s assent, subject to Parliament’s power to enact subsequent legislation.
Gujarat follows Uttarakhand, which enacted its Uniform Civil Code in 2024 and brought it into operation in January 2025. Assam’s Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2026, has also received presidential assent, on September 29, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan’s published list of state Bills.
