Sunday, 02 July 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Amid the raging debate in the country on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the report prepared by the expert committee set up by the Uttarakhand government on the subject, the State government can either convene a special session of the Assembly to table the UCC bill or can promulgate an ordinance for it. It is likely that the Narendra Modi government can place the UCC bill during the upcoming Monsoon session of the Parliament. The National Law Commission has started the process of taking opinion on the subject and it is very likely that the draft of the expert committee headed by Justice (Retd) Ranjana Desai which would be submitted to the Uttarakhand government can act as the template for the Union government to firm up its own bill to be tabled in the parliament. In such a scenario, Pushkar Singh Dhami government would definitely try to take a lead on the UCC and the credit for taking a lead on the subject and for this the assembly session can be convened. Elaborating the stand of BJP, the State president Mahendra Bhatt said on Saturday that after the receipt of draft, a bill on UCC can be tabled in assembly during the monsoon session.
In the run up for the assembly elections of 2022, the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had promised that the BJP government would bring UCC in the state. Accordingly an expert committee headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was set up on May 27, 2022. The committee was mandated to examine all existing and relevant laws regarding marriage, divorce, right for property, inheritance, adoption and protection for implementation of UCC in the state. The committee interacted with more than 20,000 people and studied 2.31 lakh suggestions given by the people of the different sections of the society.
The last session of the Uttarakhand assembly was convened in March when the budget was presented by the Dhami government. As per the rules there should not be a gap of more than six months between holding of two sessions and in such a scenario it is very likely that the government can convene a special session of State assembly to discuss the UCC. In this special session the government can also bring the draft of Lokayakut bill in the house. It is pertinent to mention here that the Uttarakhand High Court had recently directed the State government to appoint Lokayukt within eight weeks.
In its pre-election promise the BJP in the year 2017 has said that it will appoint Lokayukt within 100 days of coming to the power and the government headed by the then chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had brought a ‘Lokayukt Bill’ in the State assembly. The opposition members supported this bill but it was sent to the Select committee of the assembly and from then on the issue has remained in cold storage.
The meetings of the assembly speaker Ritu Khanduri with the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday and with the governor Lieutenant General (Retd) Gurmit Singh on Saturday gave strength to the talk that a special session can be convened soon.
