Maharashtra has formed a seven-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Rangana Desai to prepare a draft law to implement the Uniform Civil Code, or a common body of laws relating to personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession for all.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the committee will submit its report within six months. “Based on its recommendations, the government plans to introduce a bill on UCC during the winter session of the state legislature,” he told the state assembly on Wednesday.
Maharashtra is the latest in a series of states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form committees under Justice (retd) Desai to implement the UCC.
Last month, Rajasthan began the process of setting up a UCC, becoming the fifth BJP-ruled state to do so in the past two years. In February 2024, Uttarakhand became the first state to pass the UCC Act. Two other BJP-ruled states, Gujarat and Assam, followed suit this year.
The BJP-ruled state of Madhya Pradesh has also formed a committee to draft the UCC and plans to introduce a bill this month. Tribes have been excluded from the scope of the common frameworks governing personal matters under the UCC in all these states.
Article 44 of the Constitution, one of the directive principles of state policy, calls for the establishment of a federal commission, a controversial and polarizing issue. But religion-based civil laws have governed personal matters since independence.
The All India UCC is the third unfulfilled ideological promise of the BJP. The construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status under Article 370 of the Constitution, the other two major ideological goals, have been achieved since the BJP came to power at the Center in 2014.
The Maharashtra UCC panel will include retired Bombay High Court judges RC Chavan and SG Mihir, former Chief Secretary DK Jain, former Solicitor General Birendra Saraf, constitutional expert Ramesh Patang and activist Suvarna Rawal. Fadnavis said the committee will examine the legal, administrative and social aspects of implementation of the UCC and will make its recommendations.
