Behind Uttarakhand UCC: 13 months of consultations, 38 public meetings

She ended her speech with another “sorry”.

“I would like to say sorry if I have said something wrong. What I have said is based on whatever little I have read and understood… Thanks and sorry again,” said Lubna, and slowly put down the microphone.

There was silence, and then thunderous applause. And it echoed for a while.

This was at one of the 38 public meetings organised by the five-member expert committee designated to prepare a report on the UCC in Uttarakhand.

Many others like Lubna shared their views, doubts and suggestions with the committee in the 13 months since it was formed by the Uttarakhand government.

Not everyone was convinced though. While welcoming the idea of a uniform civil law, many asked the panel to ensure that the discussion on the topic stayed separate from politics. In some instances, people suggested that all communities be taken into confidence before implementing any such law.

There were also questions on whether the UCC provisions would be in contradiction to Article 25 which guarantees the freedom of conscience, the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion to all citizens, and the effect these would have on ongoing legal cases related to personal laws. Some suggested that once the draft was ready, the committee should identify diverse stakeholders and have a discussion with them before submitting the report to the state government.

The panel received an estimated 2.5 lakh suggestions and comments, of which around 2.3 lakh came via handwritten letters, registered post, emails and submissions on an online portal, sources said. But the most meaningful suggestions came from direct public interactions.

“Most of the written suggestions are one-sided, but the two-way communication in public interactions generated more meaningful suggestions,” a source said.

At the office allocated in Dehradun to the expert panel, four rooms are filled with letters. Three to four persons have been put to work to go through each letter and sort them into different sections.

According to sources, around 70 per cent of the letters were in favour of the UCC.

Last Friday, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, a former judge of the Supreme Court who heads the five-member committee, told reporters: “It gives me immense pleasure to inform you that the drafting of the proposed Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand is now complete. The report of the expert committee, along with the draft, will be printed and submitted to the government of Uttarakhand.”

The committee report and a draft of the proposed law are expected by the end of the month. Some other states and the Centre are likely to use this as a template to draft their own legislation on the UCC — on June 14, the Law Commission of India issued a notice inviting public views on the UCC within 30 days.

The Law Commission also met the Uttarakhand expert committee. “Even though the Law Commission is a constitutional body and much bigger than the Uttarakhand committee by protocol, the former met the latter and discussed the issues. The portal to invite suggestions was launched by the Law Commission on June 14, the day of the last consultation with the Uttarakhand committee,” a source said.

Sources said they were confident that the Uttarakhand UCC would be widely accepted since its focus is on women and children, and is “very progressive, beyond people’s imagination”.

Since the Uttarakhand expert committee was formed on May 27 last year, it has held a total of 38 public meetings across the state, taking views and suggestions from local residents.

Mana, known as the ‘First Indian Village’ due to its proximity to the Tibetan border, and several other remote villages with minimal road access were among the locations where such public meetings were held.

The committee also held meetings in areas with large Muslim populations including Kaliyar Sharif, Manglaur, Ramnagar, Haldwani, Kashipur, and Vikas Nagar. The panel met Hindu religious leaders in Haridwar, and spoke to the Hindu Akharas.

Before preparing its report, the committee studied laws in other countries on civil matters, including countries with a non-religious uniform code as well as countries where laws were made on the basis of religion and later amended. The committee also studied various personal laws, religious laws, and religious customs in India, along with the various cases handled by different commissions associated with civil laws.

They had invited 10 political parties active in Uttarakhand to share their views and suggestions on the matter. Seven participated, while the Congress, the AAP and the CPI stayed away.

All five members of the committee sat together 53 times in New Delhi to discuss the issues and prepare the draft, The Indian Express has learnt. Special care was taken to keep the draft a secret, leading to the decision not to appoint anyone outside the committee to type the draft.

According to sources, two issues that came up most prominently during public consultations were family planning and the regulation of live-in relationships.

“There were many requests that family planning and population control also be included in the UCC. People requested that there should be uniformity in the number of children per family,” a source said, adding that this was not a matter concerning any particular religion.

Sources also said that many people had suggested a legal declaration of live-in relationships. The report submitted by the expert panel is expected to suggest provisions that will allow for self-declarations of live-in relationships.

The committee also found that several laws dealing with the same issue sometimes contradict each other, such as in the case of adoption, where religious laws differ from rules under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015, sources said. The UCC is expected to rectify discrepancies.

Sources also said there were widespread demands for equal rights to both daughters and sons in inheriting property. There were also demands for equality with respect to children’s duties towards their parents.

“None of the laws suggested, or being made, are just for today. These are all for the next 100 years. Today, we have a big young population, but after 25-30 years, the situation will change, we will have more older people. The dependent population will increase in the coming decades and we need to prepare for that,” a source said.