In a recent public notice, the 22nd Law Commission of India solicited “views and ideas of the public at large and recognised religious organisations about the uniform civil code [UCC]”. In August 2018, the 21st Law Commission had put out a Consultation Paper on Reform of Family Law and not a draft of UCC. Based on research and consultation with experts, it said that “the issue of uniform civil code is vast, and its potential repercussions untested, in India”.
The commission took a clear stand that neither the right to equality nor the freedom of religion are absolute, and urged the legislature to “first consider guaranteeing equality ‘within communities’ between men and women, rather than ‘equality between ‘communities’”. It called for preserving meaningful differences within personal laws while weeding out inequality “to the greatest extent possible without absolute uniformity”.
It is not clear what the 22nd Law Commission is inviting people to comment upon since no draft of a UCC has been placed in the public domain by either the Law Commission or any Ministry. Nor has the 22nd Law Commission provided any reason why it has completely set aside its predecessor’s 2018 consultation paper.
The Supreme Court, political and religious leaders, public figures, legal scholars, public intellectuals, and now media influencers have discussed the possibility of a UCC, but no government has yet presented a proper conceptualisation. No one has given an idea of what the UCC could look like. Legal scholars have gone so far as to call the UCC a “complete fiction”, so this fresh move by the government exposes the UCC as a political sleight of hand…
