UCC Uttarakhand expert committee chief (Rtd) Justice Ranjana Desai says the report has been finalised and would be presented to UK govt latest by July.
The UCC expert committee of Uttarakhand will be submitting its final report alongwith the draft of the proposed law shortly.
This was announced by the chief of the UCC expert committee retired justice of Supreme Court Ranjana Desai in a crowded press conference at Uttarakhand Sadan on 30 th June, 2023.
While addressing the press conference Justice ( Rtd) Ranjana Desai said that it gives me immense pleasure to announce that the draft of the Uniform Civil code of Uttarakhand had been finalised and the report along with the draft of the proposed law of UCC will be presented to the Uttarakhand government by the end of July.
Explaining the details of various exercises undertaken during the finalisation of the said report Justice Ranjana Desai said that the government of Uttarakhand had constituted an expert committee to examine the various existing laws regulating personal civil matters of the residents of Uttarakhand, the notification of which was issued in 27 th May, 2022 with terms of reference notified on June 10, 2022.
Explaining about the committee’s detailed exercises she said that it has met 63 times and its sub committee began its public outreach by organising public outreach dialogue programmes starting from the last border village of Garhwal, Uttarakhand “Mana”, followed by visits to 40 different places of the hilly state eliciting the response from the cross sections of the people.
The sub committee had in all met 143 times at the state capital Dehradun, including receiving two to three lakh suggestions for and against from the people of the state with majority of them in favour of the UCC though there were opposition too stated Justice Ranjana Desai.
She said that the expert committee also interacted with the representatives of various political parties, state statutory commissions as well as leaders of various religious denominations.
After taking the opinions of all shades, painstakingly, the committee also took into account the various statutes and uncodified laws including the statutory framework in select countries but the chairperson Ranjana Desai refused to divulge the names of the foreign countries despite journalists’ repeated queries in this regard.
She also said that an interactive session in Delhi too was organised to seek people’s opinion on UCC which was a grand success.
Feeling extremely encouraged about the outcome of their efforts to draft the UCC report she said that the response has been overwhelming and this will help in maintaining the secular and harmonial character of the state in future with gender equality and amity in the society.
It is learnt from reliable sources that the Union Government is expected to use this report as a template for drafting its own Uniform Civil Code bill with the ruling party highly optimistic to take it up in the winter session of parliament.
It is believed that while the UCC report has recommended for two child norm for seeking government jobs , government welfare measures and contracts etc there is also a thrust for gender equality – having provisions for equal rights for both sons and daughters in inheritance including provision for equal grounds for adoption and divorce – cutting across religious lines, for all communities.
The chief of the UCC expert committee Justice Ranjana Desai was not in a mood to disclose the details of the report saying that it will be fully satisfactory for all communities with no complaints by any section of the society.
To certain queries of the journalists regarding the exact date of submitting the report to Uttarakhand government and divulgence of the contents of the report, the chief of UCC Justice Desai said they can’t give the fix date but may be in July and that their duty is to submit the report to the state government leaving everything to their discretion to reveal any part of it fully or partially.
Responding to a question of Uk Nation News the chairperson of UCC expert committee said that she is sure that this UCC will definitely strengthen the secular fabric in the country.
The UCC expert committee apart from its chief (Rtd) Justice Ranjana Desai comprised of four other members viz. Justice Pramod Kohli, Social Worker Manu Gaur ( heading Tax Payers Association of Bharat), retired IAS officer Shatrughan Singh and vice chancellor of Doon university Surekha Dangwal. All the members were present at the press conference.
