Gujarat government forms committee to draft UCC
After Uttarakhand rolled out its version of the Uniform Civil Code, the BJP-ruled Gujarat on Tuesday announced the constitution of a committee to draft the UCC Bill.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel announced the move, stating that the committee will submit its report to the state government within 45 days.
“To prepare the draft for Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and make the law, a 5-member committee under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai has been constituted. The committee will submit its report to the state government in 45 days, based on which the government will take a decision,” Patel said.
Former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai had also headed the Uttarakhand UCC panel earlier.
Meanwhile, plans to commence work on UCC in all the BJP-ruled states is underway with announcements expected gradually.
Uttar Pradesh is also mulling a committee.
The BJP has decided to take the state government route to push with its only pending ideological Lok Sabha poll promise -- UCC.
The Centre had said that states are empowered to legislate on the issue.
Article 44 of the Constitution says that the state shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the country. Personal laws such as intestacy and succession, wills, joint family and partition, marriage and divorce relate to Entry 5 of List-III-Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule and hence, the states are also empowered to legislate upon them.
The BJP had included the UCC in its election manifestos for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.