The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code draft ‘will be sent for printing soon’, and subsequently, a copy of the draft is expected to be handed over to the state government
Afive-member panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, will on Friday address a press conference on Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand. The committee was given the responsibility to draft the UCC for the northern stated.
According to a report in Times of India, the committee is now ready with the UCC documentation after over 13 months of meetings, consultations, field visits and interactions with experts and members of the public.
In a meeting that spanned more than 10 hours on Wednesday, crucial aspects of the UCC were discussed and finalised, TOI quoted officials as saying. The draft will be sent for printing soon, it is learnt, and subsequently, a copy of the draft is expected to be handed over to the state government, the report stated.
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Desai had earlier said that the UCC being drafted by the committee of experts will promote gender equality and help fight economic, social and religious inequalities.
“The committee will make recommendations for bringing a uniform civil code for a range of issues including marriage, divorce succession, guardianship, custody and inheritance with a primary focus on safeguarding the interests of women, children and the differently-abled. We are focusing more on women, children and specially-abled people. We are working for gender equality,” Desai had said.
Modi made a strong push for a UCC on Tuesday, asking how can the country function with dual laws that govern personal matters, and accused the opposition of using the issue to “mislead and provoke” Muslims.
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Opposition parties, including the Congress, have hit out at the prime minister on the issue. In a veiled reference to Modi’s push for a UCC ahead of a string of Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said his party will not allow the BJP to divert attention from public issues.
Notably, in BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto, the party promised the implementation of UCC if it came to power.
Desai was appointed as the chairperson of the Delimitation Commission of India on 13 March 2020. She was also one of the judges who had ruled for a provision of NOTA in voting.
