The Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government of using the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as a political instrument to “divide, disrupt and divert” public attention, rather than as a measure of legal reform.
The party’s remarks came after former Bombay High Court judge RC Chavan resigned from the Maharashtra government-appointed committee drafting a framework for the UCC, citing reservations over the panel’s decision to seek public responses to complex social questions through a “yes or no” format.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Justice Chavan’s resignation raised questions about the committee’s functioning and the broader approach to UCCs being pursued by different States.
“Did the Constituent Assembly ever imagine a situation in which every State would enact its own separate version of a UCC?” Ramesh asked in a statement posted on X.
He also cited the 21st Law Commission’s 2018 consultation paper on family law, which concluded that a UCC was “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage” and instead recommended reforming discriminatory provisions within existing personal laws while preserving India’s legal and cultural diversity.
Ramesh alleged that the government had disregarded the Law Commission’s position because it did not suit its political agenda.
He further argued that the State-level UCCs being pursued were not uniform. The UCC came into force in Uttarakhand in January 2025, while Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have subsequently passed legislation on the subject, he said.
“These State-level UCCs ... are not uniform. They contain different provisions, different penalties, different procedures and significant exemptions,” Ramesh said, alleging that the Uttarakhand law had also led to problems for residents.
Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement that NDA-ruled States would implement the UCC before the 2029 Lok Sabha election, Ramesh said the proposed legislation was being pursued without the broad consultations and consensus required for major legal reform.
Later, responding to questions on the party’s statement, Ramesh said: “The UCC bulldozer is to permanently polarise society.”
In his resignation letter to committee chairperson and former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai, Justice Chavan said he had initially understood that the panel would seek public views and build consensus on issues such as delayed marriages, infertility, marital instability and delays in resolving matrimonial disputes.
He said he later realised that the exercise was primarily intended to collect responses in a “yes or no” format to facilitate data analysis.
Justice Chavan said such an approach reduced complex social questions to binary choices and did not serve the objective of consensus-building.
The Maharashtra government constituted the seven-member committee in July to prepare a framework for implementing a UCC in the State. The proposed code is intended to provide common legal provisions across religions on matters including marriage, divorce and property.
Justice Chavan resigned from the committee on September 19.
(With inputs from PTI)