Dehradun: The Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand has constituted a five-member committee to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the hill state, three months after the decision was announced.
The announcement came through a post on the CM’s official Facebook page on 27 May. The committee will be chaired by Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (Retd).
Other members of the committee are former Sikkim High Court Chief Justice Permod Kohli, former Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Shatrughna Singh, Doon University Vice-Chancellor Surekha Dangwal and social activist Manu Gaur.
The chief minister had promised the implementation of the UCC on 12 February while campaigning for the assembly polls. After returning to power, the new cabinet — at its first meeting on 24 March — came up with a decision to set up a committee to draft the UCC.
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Panel’s mandate
According to the orders issued by the state home department Friday, the mandate given to the special committee includes preparing a report after studying the relevant existing personal laws of different communities, and also looking into the drafting and implementation of the UCC.
The points of reference for it include marriage, divorce, property rights and laws pertaining to rights of inheritance, heritage and adoption.
Speaking to ThePrint, state cabinet minister Dhan Singh Rawat said the “chief minister has done what was promised to the people of Uttarakhand in the BJP’s election manifesto”.
“We are the first state in the country to take the promised implementation of UCC one step forward… This government made a commitment to the people of Uttarakhand on the matter of a UCC and it shall fulfil it,” he added.
The UCC draft committee order doesn’t mention a deadline for the submission of the report. “It’s a sensitive, time-intensive process and the committee will take its time to finalise the draft,” said Rawat.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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