The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Committee has completed its work and its report will be submitted to the Uttarakhand government on February 2, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Monday (January 29). He said that it will thereafter be brought to the Cabinet and then introduced in the state Assembly for passage and enactment. UCC was a major poll promise by the BJP in the run up to the Assembly elections in 2022. Dhami had vowed to introduce the legislation in the state after his government returned to power.
“While making a promise to the people of the state in the 2022 assembly elections, we constituted the UCC Committee, taking a pledge to implement the Uniform Civil Code in the state. The committee has completed its work and on February 2, it will submit its report to us,” CM Dhami said.
The Uttarakhand government had constituted a panel on Uniform Civil Code under Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai on May 27, 2022.
Uniform Civil Code
Article 44 of the Constitution of India says that the state shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) throughout the territory of India. The UCC proposes a common set of laws dealing with marriage, inheritance, adoption, and other matters.
The Uniform Civil Code has been a point of debate in the political corridors over the years, however, came to be highlighted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June last year batted for the implementation of the legislation, in an address in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal.
What had PM said?
PM Modi said the country cannot run on two laws and that the Uniform Civil Code was in keeping with the founding principles and ideals of the Constitution.
"Today, people are being instigated in the name of UCC. How can the country run on two (laws)? The Constitution also talks of equal rights...Supreme Court has also asked to implement the UCC. These (opposition) people are playing vote bank politics," PM Modi had said in Bhopal.
(With ANI inputs)
ALSO READ | UCC decision as significant as Ram Mandir's construction, draft to be submitted soon: Uttarakhand CM
