NEW DELHI: The Union government has constituted the 22nd Law Commission after nearly three years amid a push from some BJP-ruled states on implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) ahead of Assembly polls.
The government on Monday announced the appointment of former high court chief justice Rituraj Awasthi as the chairperson. Awasthi headed the bench of the Karnataka High Court which pronounced the verdict that hijab is not essential to Islam.
The members of the commission are Justice KT Sankaran, Prof Anand Paliwal, Prof DP Verma, Prof Raka Arya and M. Karunanithi. In 2009, Justice Sankaran of Kerala High Court had propounded the theory of “love jihad” in the country for the first time.
The setting up of the panel assumes significance as Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament in February that the Commission will examine issues related to UCC. However, experts say that as the Commission’s term ends in three months, it will be pressed for time to deal with the issue. The tenure of a law commission is three years and the panel was notified in February 2020.
The Law Commission has been inactive since the term of the 21st Commission, headed by retired judge B S Chauhan, ended on August 31, 2018. It had prepared a report titled ‘Reform of family law’ on UCC after consultation with various stakeholders, which suggested that UCC is neither necessary nor tenable at this stage.
Chauhan says three months is a short time for any commission to look into framing a common law, and the government may consider reappointing the panel after its term is over. “Our panel took two-and-a-half years to prepare a working paper on UCC. It needs wide consultation as it deals with personal laws of various religious communities,” he said.