Murmu assented to Gujarat's civil code on 17 September; the gazette came on 1 October

President Droupadi Murmu assented to the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code on 17 September. The state published the Act in an extraordinary gazette dated 1 October, and the government confirmed the assent on Friday, 2 October. The Code does not apply on publication. It comes into force on a date the state government names in a later notification. Until that notice, marriage, divorce and succession in Gujarat stay on the existing statutes.

The assembly, controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, passed the bill on 24 March after a debate of more than seven hours. A state civil code that touches succession needs presidential assent because it sits beside central laws and personal-law statutes. The gap between the March vote and the 17 September signature is the Centre's examination. The further gap, to a commencement date that does not yet exist, is the state's.

Who is covered, and who is not

The Act says it will govern marriage, divorce, succession and live-in relationships, and matters tied to them. It extends to the whole of Gujarat and to residents of the state who live outside it. A person domiciled in Gujarat who marries in another state is inside that second limb, once the Code is in force. It excludes members of Scheduled Tribes notified under Article 342, and persons or groups whose customary rights are protected under Part XXI of the Constitution. Those exclusions are the legal boundary. A tribal resident covered by Article 342 is outside the Code even if the rest of the household is not.

The text prohibits bigamy. It recognises children born in live-in relationships and sets out legal rights for them. Where a person dies without a will, it names specified shares for the spouse, children and parents, and it lists spouses, children and parents among Class-I heirs. Registration rules for marriage and for live-in relationships are part of the same framework. The fine print of those forms, and the office that will take them, wait on the commencement notice and on rules the government has not yet tabled in the reports of the gazette.

Why the date matters more than the assent

Assent makes the bill an Act. Commencement makes it a rule a registrar can enforce. Gujarat can choose a near date or a distant one. Uttarakhand, the first state to pass a code of this kind in the current political cycle, showed how long the distance between a vote and a working registry can be. Gujarat's text is not identical to Uttarakhand's. The shared political fact is a BJP state government writing one statute over several personal laws, with a tribal exception large enough to matter in the eastern districts, where Scheduled Tribe populations are concentrated.

Article 44 of the Constitution, a directive principle, tells the state to endeavour toward a uniform civil code. It is not a timetable, and it does not by itself authorise a state assembly to override central succession law. That is why the file went to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and why the 17 September signature is the legal event rather than the March debate. Opponents have argued that a state code of this scope will be challenged on religious freedom and on the division of powers. No judgment has struck this Act, because it is not in force. A petition filed before commencement would be aimed at the gazette, not at a registrar who has refused a form.

What does not change next week

The gazette of 1 October is the document lawyers will attach to any petition. The operative lines in it are the assent date, 17 September, the exclusion of Article 342 tribes, the ban on bigamy, the recognition of children from live-in relationships, and the sentence that postpones force until a notification. Residents who marry or inherit next week are still under the old law. Bigamy remains governed by the statutes that already apply to them. A live-in couple does not yet have a Gujarat form to file.

The change, when it comes, will be a second date in the gazette, not the debate of 24 March and not the confirmation issued on 2 October. Until that second date, the Act is law on the book and not law at the counter.