NEW DELHI: Amid growing buzz that the Centre may table a draft Uniform Civil Code (UCC) during the Monsoon session of Parliament in July, the Uttarakhand UCC panel announced on Friday that it has completed work on the draft UCC for the state and will soon submit it to the government.
This development comes a day after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice invited representatives of the Law Commission and the law ministry on July 3 to seek views of stakeholders on the issue of UCC.
Addressing the media in the capital, Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, who heads the expert committee set up by the state government last year, stated that the panel has drafted the code by taking into account all shades of opinions and considering various statutes and uncodified laws, including the statutory framework in select countries.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary panel’s call for consultations on UCC has sparked speculation that the government is considering tabling the bill on UCC during the Monsoon session of Parliament, which will begin in the second week of July. This paper previously reported that during a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in April, he expressed his keenness to introduce the bill in the Monsoon session of Parliament in July. The meeting was attended by former Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, top officials from various departments, BJP President J P Nadda, and RSS Joint General Secretary Arun Kumar, among others.
According to the schedule of the standing committee led by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi, representatives of the law panel and legal affairs and legislative departments of the law ministry will be heard “on public notice issued by the Law Commission of India on 14th June 2023, inviting views from the various stakeholders on the Uniform Civil Code, under the subject ‘Review of Personal Laws.”
Sushil Modi, speaking to this paper, said that the committee has shared a consultation paper issued by the 21st Law Commission in August 2028 with all its members. He stated, “The committee will deliberate on the previous Law Commission report and will seek views from members on various issues involved.” Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who is a member of the Standing Committee, said that he will present his views on issues involving the proposed UCC in the Monday meeting. Tagore mentioned that the BJP government is bringing up UCC to divert attention from other pressing issues. He said, “In the standing committee meeting, we will be discussing the 2018 consultation paper prepared by the previous commission. We will present our views.”
After PM Modi made a strong pitch in favor of uniform laws for people across communities earlier this week, several opposition parties, women’s groups, Muslim bodies, and tribal outfits have come out in opposition to UCC, alleging that the BJP is resorting to ‘divisive politics’ ahead of the 2024 elections. Modi emphasized that the country cannot be run with ‘two laws’ when the Constitution talks about equality for all. The UCC, which falls under Article 44 of the Constitution of India, calls for a common set of laws for all religious communities.
