NEW DELHI: Even as the Uttarakhand government is preparing to bring a draft bill on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) next week, the BJP’s long-time poll promise of a nationwide UCC is unlikely to materialise before the Lok Sabha elections, according to highly placed sources in the government.
According to the source, the 22nd Law Commission of India, which is tasked with drafting of the bill, is yet to complete consultations with stakeholders to formulate a comprehensive draft bill on UCC. “The consultations are still on and it is unlikely that the commission will submit its report before LS polls,” said the official.
The UCC, which comes under Article 44 of the Constitution of India, calls for a common set of laws for all religious communities on matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, and succession.
While the Uttarakhand UCC is expected to be a model for the Central UCC, the official said, “We cannot replicate a state model for the Central law. Indian personal law is pretty complex with each religion having its own specific laws. In each state, the situation is different. We may adopt some elements from it,” he said.
The commission, headed by justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, is in the process of holding consultations with experts and stakeholders, including religious scholars and representatives from various religious and women’s organisations, said the source. While various tribal groups across the country, including northeastern states, have strongly opposed the proposed UCC, the official said that the government is likely to exclude tribals from the ambit of the UCC.
In June last year, the Law Commission issued a notification calling for the opinion of various stakeholders on the proposed legislation. A political row broke out after Prime Minister Modi made a strong pitch for the implementation of nationwide UCC. Many political parties have questioned the Law Commission’s decision to revisit UCC despite the previous commission’s detailed consultation paper on the subject in August 2018.
Speaking to this paper, a member of the 21 st Law Commission said that Muslim personal laws will have to be codified before drafting laws for UCC as Hindu and Christian personal laws have already been codified.
Though two other BJP ruled states – Gujarat and Assam — are expected to follow Uttarakhand in implementing the Uniform Civil Code, opposition parties argue that if different states have different UCCs, the purpose of having a ‘common law for all’ will be defeated.
