The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice on Monday held a meeting on the controversial Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi of the BJP, according to media reports, wanted to hear from the Department of Legal Affairs, the Legislative Department and the Law Commission of India on the issue, following the Law Commission’s notification inviting views from the public on the UCC.
Sushil Modi said that the meeting of the committee is non-political as the panel has members from all political parties.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier mentioned the UCC “is the need of the hour that a law should be made by uniting and including all the people of the country and the Supreme Court has also endorsed many of its verdicts”.
The UCC proposes to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply to all citizens equally regardless of their religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation.
Currently, the personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. On the 14th of last month, the Law Commission of India solicited the views and ideas of the public and recognised religious organisations to examine the UCC. The public can send their views on the matter by the 14th of this month.
Several Opposition parties have openly criticised any move to bring the UCC and are proposing to raise the issue during the coming monsoon session of Parliament.
Before the commencement of the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee, Rajya Sabha DMK member P Wilson, a member of the Standing Committee, wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Law Commission of India through the Chairman of the Standing Committee on issue of further public consultations by the Law Commission on the Uniform Civil Code.
He wrote: “I am surprised that when the previous 21st Law Commission headed by a retired SC judge has already conducted a detailed study & concluded that UCC is not desirable for India as recently as 2018, the present Law Commission is insistent on reopening the issue & holding further consultation.”
According to the schedule of the standing committee on law and personnel, it has to hear the views of representatives of the law panel and legal affairs and legislative departments of the law ministry “on public notice issued by the Law Commission of India on 14th June 2023, inviting views from the various stakeholders on the Uniform Civil Code, under the subject Review of Personal Laws’.”
On the 14th of last month, the Law Commission of India solicited the views and ideas of the public and recognised religious organisations to examine the UCC. The public can send their views on the matter by the 14th of this month. Last week, UCC received nearly 8.5 lakh responses on its public notice.
(With inputs from agencies)