DEHRADUN: The committee set up to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand has announced that the drafting of the proposed Uniform Civil Code has now been completed. The expert committee will soon submit its report to the government after it is printed.
Justice Ranjana Desai, chairperson of the expert committee on UCC, said the draft of the proposed Uniform Civil Code for Uttarakhand has been prepared.
"The committee has met 63 times since July 4, 2022," senior committee member Shatrughan Singh told the newspaper quoting chairperson Ranjana Desai. A sub-committee was formed last year, which will seek public opinion by inviting written submissions as well as conducting public dialogue programmes.
"The UCC committee started its public outreach programme from the border tribal village of Mana and visited 40 different locations covering all the districts of the state, which culminated in a public discussion in Delhi on 14 June 2023, with participation from residents of Uttarakhand living there", UCC Committee
member Shatrughan Singh said, adding "Sub-committee meets 143 times in Dehradun and other places".
"The committee also interacted with representatives of political parties, state statutory commissions as well as leaders of various religious denominations", Singh told.
The Chairman of the Law Commission of India had requested to interact with the members of the Expert Committee. The interaction was held on June 2, 2023, in which members of both the Law Commission and the Expert Committee as well as the Chairman were present.
Member Shatrughan Singh further told, "The committee has taken into account all kinds of opinions and has looked into various laws and uncodified laws, including the statutory framework in select countries". Apart from this, the committee has tried to understand the nuances of various traditional practices
prevalent in different parts of the state.
The Pushkar Singh Dhami government had set up an expert committee to examine various existing laws regulating the civil matters of residents of Uttarakhand. The notification in this regard was issued on May 27, 2022, and the terms of reference were notified on June 10, 2022.