With the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 just around the corner, the Law Commission has asked for feedback on a Uniform Civil Code from the general people, political parties, and others over the course of the next 30 days.
In September 2018, the previous (21st) Law Commission, after wide consultations and reviewing 75,000 responses over two years, had produced a ‘consultation paper’ observing that UCC was “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”. It had, however, suggested changes in family and personal laws. The previous commission had said its consultations lacked consensus among stakeholders.
Referring to the previous panel’s consultation paper - ‘Reforms of Family Law’ - the 22nd Law Commission, headed by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, former chief justice of Karnataka high court, said, “Since more than three years have lapsed from the date of issuance of the said consultation paper, bearing in mind the relevance and importance of the subject and also the various court orders on the subject, the commission considered it expedient to deliberate afresh over the subject. ”
All stakeholders were given a month to submit their responses, but the commission also stated that it would be available for in-person dialogue with any person or organisation.
One of the BJP's defining concerns has continued to take centre stage, with BJP-run states announcing their plans to pass laws to ensure that all communities are covered by the same rules regarding marriage, succession, inheritance, adoption, and other related matters. Gujarat and Uttarakhand formed committees as a result, and the Gujarat committee's work on it is nearly complete.
Defined by the framers of the Constitution as a goal for the country to pursue and part of the Directive Principles, the enactment of UCC never got off the ground initially because of opposition from the Muslim community which insisted on retention of its personal laws. In later years, opposition parties as well as sections of intellectuals and activists who had supported the idea joined the resistance for a variety of reasons - chiefly, fear of loss of Muslim support, and the belief that BJP and RSS would use it to target the minority community.