The BJP government in Chhattisgarh on Thursday formed a five-member committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to prepare a draft for implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state.
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai’s office shared a notification in this regard on social media platform ‘X’ and said that the state government has formed a committee to prepare a framework for UCC and its implementation.
According to the notification, the committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Rangana Prakash Desai, who heads a similar committee in neighboring BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh state as well.
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Other members of the committee are retired IAS officers Shatrughan Singh, MK Raut, senior advocate Mohan Pawar and former director Jyoti Rani Singh.
The committee was mandated to study the existing legal framework relating to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in Chhattisgarh and make recommendations on issues such as marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and related matters.
The committee will seek suggestions from citizens, social organisations, legal experts and other stakeholders, besides examining UCC-related arrangements in other states, the notification said.
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She said the committee would prepare a draft of the proposed UCC and submit it to the state government with necessary legislative and administrative recommendations.
On April 15, the Chhattisgarh government decided to form a high-level committee headed by a retired judge to prepare a UCC project for the state.
The government then said that the move aimed to simplify laws and promote religious and gender equality. She said that the presence of multiple personal laws creates inequality in legal processes and makes the system of administration of justice more complex.
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The opposition Congress party had then criticized the proposal, calling it a threat to tribal rights and claiming that Adivasi communities would be the most affected by its implementation.
