Uttarakhand UCC panel report drafting complete, submission soon: Ranjana Desai

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, June 30

The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code draft Bill is nearing completion with chairperson of the panel tasked with finalising the bill on Friday saying the report drafting was complete and would be submitted to the state government soon.

Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (retd) flanked by the members said the draft was being printed and had been finalised. “We will submit the draft to the state government soon,” said Desai.

She said the top focus of the panel had been gender equality and elimination of arbitrariness and discrimination.

“We have specially focused on women, children and differently abled and studied all prevailing personal laws across faiths, customary practices and laws in other countries,” Desai said.

The panel also studied personal laws in Muslim-dominated nations.

Desai said the panel held 63 meetings and perused 2,31,000 written submissions.

A sub-committee of the panel met 20,000 people and held 163 meetings.

The report once adopted will strengthen secular fabric of India, said Desai, adding that the panel received overwhelming positive response with some resistance which is natural.

The Uttarakhand government had constituted the committee on personal law matters of state citizens on May 27, 2022. The committee first meet on July 4, 2022.

It visited 40 places in Uttarakhand covering all districts.

It also interacted with representatives of state statutory commissions and leaders of religious denominations.

The panel also met the Law Commission on June 2 with the Law Commission also in the process of inviting responses to draft a national legislation on the issue.

PM Narendra Modi this week batted for UCC saying one nation can’t run on dual laws.

Meanwhile, the parliament panel on law and justice has called Law Commission members on July 3 to discuss the UCC.