Retd SC justice who headed UCC drafting panel for U’knd to lead Gujarat’s UCC panel
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The Gujarat government has formed a five-member panel to draft the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), appointing retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, who previously headed the drafting committee for the UCC in Uttarakhand, to head the panel, The Indian Express reported.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who announced the formation of the committee, claimed that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to bring the country under a uniform code for all religious denominations to ensure equal rights for all citizens, as the country celebrates 75 years of its Constitution, calling Indianness a religion and the Constitution its sacred book.
The five-member panel includes prominent individuals such as IAS (retd) CL Meena, Advocate RC Kodekar, educationist Dakshesh Thaker, and social worker Geetaben Shroff. This committee is expected to prepare a comprehensive report that will serve as the foundation for the government’s next steps in the implementation of the UCC. Once the report is submitted, Gujarat's state cabinet will deliberate on the findings before making any decisions on the way forward.
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is a proposed legal framework that aims to replace the current personal laws based on religion with a uniform set of laws governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and maintenance for all citizens.
The objective of the UCC is to establish the principle of ‘one nation, one law,’ ensuring that legal rights are consistent regardless of an individual's religious affiliation. This concept is enshrined in Article 44 of the Indian Constitution, which calls for the state to strive towards implementing a Uniform Civil Code across the country.
At present, India follows different personal laws for various religious communities, including Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Parsi laws. These separate laws create legal disparities in areas such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption. If implemented, the UCC will standardize marriage laws, ensuring a common legal age, registration process, and dissolution procedure for all citizens.
It is claimed that the UCC will guarantee equal inheritance rights, eliminate gender-based discrimination in property distribution, standardize divorce laws to eliminate religious-based differences, and ensure uniformity in adoption and guardianship laws, thereby ensuring equal rights for individuals of all religious backgrounds.
The UCC’s most significant impact will likely be its ban on polygamy, enforcing monogamy across all communities and promoting gender justice. Currently, Goa is the only Indian state to follow a Uniform Civil Code, having inherited it from the Portuguese Civil Code of 1867. In 2024, Uttarakhand became the first state to implement the UCC, setting a precedent for other states to follow. Now, Gujarat is set to become the second state in India to implement this unified legal framework.
Ranjana Prakash Desai has had an extensive career in the judiciary, beginning as a junior in the office of Justice S.C. Pratap of the Bombay High Court and later serving as a Government Pleader and a Special Public Prosecutor. After her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2011, she held several important positions, including chairing the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity and the Advance Ruling Authority. Desai also headed the Delimitation Commission of India and served as chairperson of the Search Committee for the Lokpal panel.