Uttarakhand Government extends Uniform Civil Code committee's tenure by 4 months

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 24

The ruling BJP Government in Uttarakhand on Saturday granted another four-month extension to the expert committee set up to draft the Uniform Civil Code law signalling a clear rethink on the part of the Centre as to the right time to push the controversial pending agenda.

The panel has already finalised the draft law as clarified by its chairperson Ranjana Prakash Desai, the former Supreme Court Judge, way back in late June.

She had then said “the draft report is being finalised and will be submitted very soon.”

The BJP, however, decided to go slow on the UCC agenda post June amid indications that tribals, a segment the saffron party assiduously woos, May get the wrong signals from the law which seeks uniform laws for marriage across faiths.

That explained the BJP leaders going slow on the only party manifesto agenda among three (other two being Abrogation of Article 370 and  Ram Mandir) remaining to be fulfilled.

The Uttarakhand UCC draft was earlier mooted to be the model draft for other BJP states to follow.

In both Himachal and Karnataka polls which the party lost the BJP had promised to work in order to bring UCC.

 The Uttarakhand panel has received its third extension today. Its second term ended on September 27.

The order extending the committee’s tenure by four months was issued by Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi on Friday.

The panel was constituted on May 27, 2022.

The five-member committee got its first extension of six months in November 2022, and the second of four months in May this year.

The BJP Government does not want to take any chances in a crucial poll year when it comes to political perceptions around its moves.

Earlier, too, the government had to go back on farm laws, after passing them.

Government sources say wide-ranging consultations with all communities would be held before bringing the UCC.

Sources said the past experience with farm laws which had been debated for three years before being enacted had its lessons.