Panel constituted to explore UCC implementation in Gujarat submits report
Panel constituted to explore UCC implementation in Gujarat submits report
M.U.H
17/03/202614
The high-level committee constituted to explore the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Gujarat submitted its report to chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday, proposing a common legal framework for all religions and communities in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption. Officials said the report stresses equal rights for women.
Retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai chaired the committee, which prepared its report after a detailed study and visits across the districts for public consultations.
The report was submitted a week after the Supreme Court suggested that UCC may be the way to address gender discrimination in personal laws.
In February 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttarakhand became the first state to pass a UCC law. Muslim bodies have challenged the law in the Uttarakhand high court. Other BJP-ruled states, such as Assam and Gujarat, have promised to implement UCC, the ruling party’s only major unfulfilled ideological promise.
The construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status under the Constitution’s Article 370, the other two major ideological goals, have been achieved since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.
UCC, a contentious and polarising issue, refers to a common set of laws for personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and succession for all citizens. Constitution’s Article 44, one of the directive principles of state policy, advocates UCC. But respective religion-based civil codes have governed personal matters since independence.
