The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan reiterated on Thursday that it will introduce a Uniform Civil Code in the state, reported The Indian Express. However, it did not specify any timeline to table the bill in the Assembly.
“The said bill will be brought by the government at an appropriate time after considering all the aspects,” said Jogaram Patel, the state Cabinet minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Justice Department.
While answering a question by party MLA Kalicharan Saraf on the plans to implement a Uniform Civil Code “on the lines of Uttarakhand”, Patel said the state government was “considering it”.
The Uniform Civil Code, is a proposed common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups – except in Uttarakhand and Goa – are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.
The BJP-ruled Uttarakhand implemented the Uniform Civil Code in February. However, it has been criticised for drawing largely from the Hindu personal law. Legal experts have said that the code could lead to the erasure of the personal law practices of minority communities.
In February, state Cabinet minister for the Public Health Engineering Department Kanhaiya Lal said that it would “100% be passed and implemented” in Rajasthan too.
“And it will be implemented not just in Rajasthan but the entire country,” Lal had said, reported The Indian Express. “We will try to be the second state [to pass Uniform Civil Code].”
Apart from Rajasthan, BJP-ruled Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have also announced that they are considering implementing the code.
In 2022, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that a committee would be formed to implement the Uniform Civil Code in the state.
In the same year, Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi also announced that the state cabinet had decided to form a committee for implementing the code.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in January that his state will be the third after Uttarakhand and Gujarat to implement a Uniform Civil Code.
Sarma, however, said that the tribal communities in the state will be kept out of the ambit of the bill.
Before the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah had said that a nationwide Uniform Civil Code would be implemented within the next five years if the BJP returned to power.
However, the party failed to get a clear majority in the polls, winning 240 Lok Sabha seats, and had to rely on its National Democratic Alliance partners to form government at the Centre.
Janata Dal (United), a key alliance partner of the BJP, said after the polls that the Uniform Civil Code, it should be implemented through a consensus.
The Telugu Desam Party, another key ally with 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha, has also stated that a decision on the issue of the Uniform Civil Code cannot be taken unilaterally.
Also read:
UCC is core ideology for the BJP – but can it ever be implemented?
With gaps and overreach, who does the Uttarakhand uniform civil code actually help?
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