NEW DELHI: After remaining headless for over seven months, the 23rd Law Commission may get a new chief this week.
According to highly placed sources, former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Dinesh Maheshwari is likely to head the law panel. Along with Justice Maheshwari, two more members will take charge. One of them could be Prof D P Verma, former member of 22nd Law Commission, sources said.
A formal notification announcing Justice Maheshwari’s appointment is expected in a couple of days, sources said.
The 23rd law panel was set up on September 2 last year for a period of three years. Though there is a provision to appoint serving Supreme Court and high court judges as its chairperson and members, usually retired top court judges and ex-chief justices of high courts get to hold that high office.
According to its terms of reference, the commission is also tasked to examine whether a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) can be introduced in the country.
Justice Maheshwari retired from the Supreme Court in May 2023. He took oath as a judge of the Rajasthan High Court in September 2004 and was transferred to the Allahabad High Court in 2014.
Justice Maheshwari was promoted as the chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court in February 2016. Two years later, he was transferred to the Karnataka High Court as chief justice. In 2019, he was elevated to the SC.
According to law ministry sources, the new panel will be mandated with the completion of the draft UCC among other terms of reference. Sources said that the 22nd Law Commission hadn’t finalise its report on the UCC.
The law panel was headless after Justice Rituraj Awasthi resigned as its chairperson in March this year after he was appointed as a judicial member of the Lokpal. Implementation of a central UCC was one of the main poll planks of the BJP.
Draft UCC bill
The Justice Awasthi-led commission worked on formulating a comprehensive draft bill on UCC since it was constituted in 2022, after a gap of four years. The panel’s tenure was later extended till August 31, 2024.