UCC to become law after framing of its rules
PrashantNews
A Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for Uttarakhand was one of the major poll planks of the ruling BJP in the run-up to the state assembly elections held in the year 2022.
With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the fate of the UCC is still not known despite President Droupadi Murmu giving her assent to the bill last month. The bill is yet to take shape of the law in the hill state with the state government not (not) yet deciding to issue the final notification, official sources said.
After being voted to power for a second consecutive term, Dhami lost no time in giving his nod to setting up a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai to prepare the draft of the UCC at the very first cabinet meeting.
The expert panel whose tenure was extended for a fourth time took the opinions of 2.33 lakh people and those of different organizations, institutions and tribal groups before preparing the UCC draft and finally submitted it to the Chief Minister.
In the month of February, the state assembly passed the UCC bill ignoring the opposition demand to send it to the select committee.
But after the President gave its assent, the state government is treading a cautious path on making it a law. Before the issuance of the final notification, the state government has also set up a separate committee under the former chief secretary Shatrughan Singh to prepare the rules of the UCC. “Till the rules are drafted, the final notification will wait,” said the sources familiar with the development.
Interestingly, in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, the UCC has gone into hibernation thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is not raising the issue in his election rallies. Even Home Minister Amit Shah has so far refrained from raising the issue.
However, BJP President J P Nadda made a partial mention of the UCC in his recent speech in Pithoragarh saying it has been passed in Uttarakhand.
Political observers said the ruling BJP has distanced itself from UCC because it wants to take full advantage of the Ram temple and the abrogation of the Article 370 issues, the two major poll planks of the BJP at national level. Ends
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