Law Commission Considering To Work On Uniform Civil Code: Justice Desai

The Law Commission is considering to work on the issue of Uniform Civil Code (UCC), said Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai on Friday.

Deside made the comment after a meeting with Law Commission's chairperson and members on Friday. She heads a committee preparing a draft of the UCC for Uttarakhand. 

Desai and members of the Uttarakhand panel met the Law Commission Chairman Justice (Retd.) Ritu Raj Awasthi, and members K T Sankaran, Anand Paliwal, and D P Verma.

She said, "It was a courtesy call. Because we are working on it (UCC) and they are also perhaps considering it. They were asking what work we have done. So we also gave them some ideas.  That's all."

When asked if the work done by the Uttarakhand UCC committee can be replicated at the national level, Desai said, "It is our wish that it will be good if other states also follow."

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had raised the issue of UCC in Uttarakhand assembly election last year. In the last leg of campaigning, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had said an expert panel to implement the UCC will be set up soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party is re-elected.

The UCC would make a same set of personal laws for all communities. As of nows, different communities have different personal laws. The BJP has raised the issue of UCC in Karnataka, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh as well. The supporteres of the UCC often see it as being essential to gender justice.

"One key idea behind the UCC is to bring all communities at par with each other as provisions in some personal laws are perceived to be unequal...Therefore, there is a gender equality and gender justice dimension to the call of the Uniform Civil Code. However, critics say that the UCC would be undue interference in the affairs of religious minorities, such as Muslims," noted Outlook earlier.

(With PTI inputs)