Murmu's 17 September assent to the Gujarat civil code is now Gujarat Act 15 of 2026

President Droupadi Murmu's assent to the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code is now on the record as Gujarat Act No. 15 of 2026. The extraordinary gazette published on 1 October says the assent was given on 17 September. The act does not start on publication. It starts on a date the state government will name in a later gazette notification.

The assembly, controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, passed the bill on 24 March after a debate of more than seven hours. Gujarat is the second state, after Uttarakhand, to carry a code of this kind through presidential assent. The text covers marriage, divorce, succession, live-in relationships and related matters. It extends to the whole of Gujarat and to residents of the state who live outside it. Scheduled Tribes, and groups whose customary rights are protected under the Constitution, are exempt.

Marriage rules in the act are specific. Neither party may have a living spouse. The minimum age is 21 for men and 18 for women. Ceremonies already in use are named as valid forms: Saptapadi, Nikah, Anand Karaj and Mangal Fera. Registration is compulsory within 60 days. Failure to register can draw a fine of up to 10,000 rupees. Sons and daughters receive equal inheritance rights across religions. Bigamy is prohibited.

The gap between assent and commencement is the operational fact. A law that is notified as Act 15, but not yet brought into force, cannot yet be used by a registrar or a court as the rule for a marriage on Monday. Couples, clerics and lawyers in Gujarat now know the text and do not know the day it binds. The state cabinet chooses that day. Until the notification, the existing personal laws remain the working rules, including for residents who live outside the state and will fall under the code once it starts.

Live-in relationships are inside the act's stated scope. The gazette summary carried by PTI and the Economic Times does not set out the registration window or the penalty for an unregistered live-in arrangement in the passages published on 1 October. That silence matters, because Uttarakhand's code made live-in registration a point of court challenges. Gujarat's text will be read against those cases once the rules are notified. Equal inheritance is the clause with the clearest immediate effect on wills and intestate succession, and it applies across religions for people covered by the act.

The exemption for Scheduled Tribes keeps a large body of customary succession outside the code. The phrase in the official description is groups whose customary rights are protected under the Constitution. How a registrar treats a marriage at the edge of that exemption will depend on rules the state has not yet published. The 60-day registration clock and the 10,000 rupee ceiling are the numbers that are already fixed.

Presidential assent on a state civil-code bill is required because the subject sits on the concurrent list and the bill was reserved. Murmu's signature on 17 September closed that constitutional step. The political step left is the commencement notification. Supporters in the state government have treated assent as the end of the process. For a couple planning a wedding, the end is the date in the next gazette.

What changes on that date, on the text already published, is the marriage age floor, the ban on a second living spouse, compulsory registration within 60 days, named recognition of four ceremony forms, and equal inheritance for sons and daughters. What does not change until then is the law a magistrate can enforce.