Uttarakhand Governor Gurmit Singh has sent back two important bills to the state government led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami after finding technical and typing errors in their drafts. These bills relate to amendments in the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the state’s anti-conversion law. Officials said the bills were returned for correction and will be sent back to the Governor once the mistakes are fixed.

According to sources from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the proposed amendment to the anti-conversion law contained several clerical and technical errors. Because of these issues, the Raj Bhavan decided not to approve the bill immediately and sent it back to the concerned department. The bill has now been forwarded to the Department of Religious Affairs and Culture, which is responsible for correcting the mistakes.

Officials  said that once the errors are corrected, the revised bill will be sent back to the Governor for approval. After getting the Governor’s clearance, the government plans to implement the changes through an ordinance. The anti-conversion law in Uttarakhand is already in force, and the latest amendment aims to make it stricter by increasing punishment for forced religious conversions.

The Governor has also returned an amendment bill related to the Uniform Civil Code, which is already operational in Uttarakhand. This bill, too, had clerical errors that needed correction. The amendment mainly focuses on marriage registration and proposes to extend the deadline for registering marriages by one additional year. Due to the technical issues in the draft, the Governor asked the government to revise it before resubmitting.

Uttarakhand became the first Indian state to pass the Uniform Civil Code in January 2024. Later, during the Monsoon Session of August 2025, the state government proposed further amendments to the UCC. These included stricter provisions against relationships formed under false pretences and giving additional powers to the Registrar General.

The anti-conversion law has been in place since 2018 and was earlier amended in 2022. In 2025, the government proposed fresh changes to make the law even tougher. These changes include increasing penalties and raising the maximum punishment for forced religious conversions from 10 years in prison to life imprisonment.

Government sources said the Home Department will now review both bills carefully, correct all drafting mistakes, and send the updated versions back to the Governor for approval. The move has sparked discussion about the need for greater care in drafting important legislation, especially when it involves sensitive legal and social issues.