Ahmedabad, Oct. 2 -- President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, 2026, making it the second state in independent India after Uttarakhand to codify a common set of personal laws.

The state government will notify the rules for the code, after which the law will come into force.

The legislation, passed after an eight-hour debate on March 24, exempts the state's Scheduled Tribe (ST) population. Chief minister Bhupendra Patel tabled it a week after a panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai submitted its report. Justice Desai had previously headed the committee that drafted the Uttarakhand code.

Moving the Bill, Patel had said, "This Bill has been introduced fo...