Uniform Civil Code: Take the earlier law panel’s advice

livemint.com:

The 22nd Law Commission recently called for views on a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for India. On Monday, at a meeting of a parliamentary committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, its chairman Sushil Kumar Modi, who represents the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Parliament, questioned the feasibility of a UCC in Northeast states and for Tribals. This suggests discomfort with the idea even within the government’s own ranks.

The 21st Law Commission, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan, had been tasked similarly. Its consultation paper of 31 August 2018, ‘Reforms of Family Law,’ said it had been published on the basis of the overwhelming responses it received. The 22nd Law Commission’s stated reasons for starting consultations afresh include the four-year-plus gap from the previous paper, the subject’s relevance and importance, and various court orders on the subject since then.

Notably, the 2018 paper had come to the conclusion that a UCC was neither necessary nor feasible. However, it also suggested detailed and comprehensive changes in every personal law. The paper scrutinized each provision with a lens of gender justice to offer updates that reflect today’s times and ensure members of all communities are treated at par.

The earlier commission had been tasked by the same government. If the recommendations it came up with were deemed faulty or did not suit its legislative agenda, then it should say so. Its own apex body on legal issues clearly stated in 2018 why a UCC is neither needed nor possible, so why else would the administration seek further views on implementing a UCC? This takes credibility away from the cited reason of a nearly-half-decade gap.