NEW DELHI: Months after Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi resigned as the chairperson of the 22nd Law Commission of India, the Centre is yet to appoint a new head for the panel tasked with drafting a nationwide Uniform Civil Code (UCC), a long-time poll promise of the BJP. Though the commission’s tenure will expire on August 31 this year, there is no clarity yet on the appointment of the new chairman.Curiously, the Justice Awasthi-led commission has been working on formulating a comprehensive draft bill on UCC since it was constituted two years ago. Implementation of a central UCC was one of the main poll planks of the BJP during its campaigns in the recent Lok Sabha elections.As the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand is all set to implement UCC in October, other states ruled by the saffron party, including Assam and Gujarat, are also pushing for the implementation of the uniform code in their respective states.In March this year, Justice Awasthi quit from the commission after he was appointed as a judicial member of the anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. Incidentally, the 22nd Law Commission was constituted in November 2022 under him after a gap of four years. The tenure of the commission was extended till August 31, 2024.After constituting the 22nd Law Commission, the Modi government maintained that the commission would look into the framing of the UCC.Significantly, the panel was also mandated to prepare the constitutional and legal framework to conduct simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, and urban and rural local bodies across the country.The Law Commission had worked in tandem with the committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which prepared a report on the feasibility of the ‘One Nation One poll’ proposal. However, the Law Commission’s final report on the same has not yet been made available in the public domain. According to officials, the commission has already held several rounds of consultations with religious scholars, civil society groups, and representatives from various religious and women’s organisations to formulate a draft bill on the UCC. In June last year, the Law Commission had issued a notification calling for opinions from stakeholders on the proposed legislation. The commission received over 75 lakh responses.The UCC calls for one codified law for all religious communities on matters such as marriage, adoption, inheritance and divorce.Earlier, the 21st Law Commission, the term of which ended in August 2018, had examined the issue and solicited views of all stakeholders on two occasions. It had then said that it dealt with laws that are discriminatory rather than providing a UCC “which is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage.”The other members of the 22nd Law Commission include Justice KT Sankaran, Prof Anand Paliwal, Prof DP Verma, Prof Raka Arya, and M Karunanithi.Speaking to this newspaper, an Opposition leader said they will ensure that contentious bills such as the UCC would not be passed smoothly in Lok Sabha. In the new Lok Sabha, the Opposition has 242 members, while the ruling National Democratic Alliance has 293 MPs.Several Opposition parties, women’s groups, Muslim bodies, and tribal outfits had come out in opposition against the UCC, alleging that the BJP is resorting to “divisive politics” ahead of the 2024 elections. Various tribal groups across the country, including from the northeastern states, had strongly opposed the proposed UCC, citing that the customs and traditions of the tribal communities are protected under the Constitution.Important tasksThe Justice Rituraj Awasthi-led commission has been working on formulating a comprehensive draft bill on Uniform Civil Code since it was constituted two years ago. The commission had also worked in tandem with the committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which prepared a report on feasibility of the ‘One Nation One poll’ proposal. However, its final report on the policy has not yet been made available in the public domain.
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