Congress accuses Modi govt of using UCC to polarise society after Maharashtra panel member quits
The Congress on Wednesday alleged that for the Modi government, the UCC is not an instrument of considered legal reform but an instrument of division, disruption and diversion, as well as a tool for stoking prejudices and keeping society in a state of permanent polarisation.
The opposition party's assertion comes after former Bombay High Court judge Justice R C Chavan resigned from the Maharashtra government's panel to prepare a draft for implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), citing serious reservations over its decision to restrict public feedback on crucial social issues to a "Yes/No" format.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the resignation of a former high court judge from the Maharashtra government's committee to draft a UCC for the state raises larger questions, apart from his several concerns on the functioning of this committee.
Posting his statement on X, Ramesh said, "A retired High Court judge has shown courage to resign from a committee set up by the Maharashtra government to prepare a uniform civil code for the state. Here is our statement on the non-uniform 'Uniform' Civil Codes (UCC) the HM is trying to bulldoze through in every state."
"Did the Constituent Assembly ever imagine a situation in which every state would enact its own separate version of a UCC? The answer is a resounding no," Ramesh said.
Did the architects of our Constitution led by Dr B.R. Ambedkar ever conceive states competing with one another to have different UCCs according to the political machinations and calculations of one political party, he asked.
"Again, the answer is a resounding no," Ramesh added.
He pointed out that on June 17, 2016, the Modi government referred the question of the UCC to the 21st Law Commission of India for detailed examination.
"After extensive research, the Commission published its Consultation Paper on Reform of Family Law on August 31, 2018. Its conclusion appearing in paragraph 1.15 on page 7 of the Consultation Paper was clear: 'The formulation of a Uniform Civil Code is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage'. Instead it recommended addressing nor discrimination within individual family laws while preserving India's legal and cultural diversity," Ramesh said.
The Modi government has chosen to disregard the findings of the very Commission it tasked with examining the issue because the facts, as usual, did not align with its political agenda, the Congress leader said.
Over the last three years, one BJP-ruled State after another bulldozed through its own version of a UCC, Ramesh said.
The UCC came into effect in Uttarakhand from January 27, 2025. Subsequently the Gujarat Assembly passed the UCC Bill on March 24, 2026, the Assam Assembly on May 27, 2026 and the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on July 21, 2026," he pointed out.
Ramesh said these State-level UCCs, never envisaged in the Constitution, are not uniform.
"They contain different provisions, different penalties, different procedures and significant exemptions. Contrary to claims, the Uttarakhand UCC, the only one in force, continues with a number of patriarchal traditions and is creating many problems for perfectly law-abiding residents of the state," Ramesh argued.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has made a typically bombastic announcement that a UCC will be implemented in all NDA-ruled States before the 2029 Lok Sabha election, he said.
Evidently other NDA parties have lost their voices and are being silenced by the BJP, the Congress general secretary said.
"For the Modi Government, the UCC is not an instrument of considered legal reform to be implemented after the widest possible consultations and public debate and with the broadest possible consensus. It is, in reality, an instrument of division, disruption and diversion, a tool for harassment and intimidation, stoking prejudices and keeping society in a state of permanent polarisation," Ramesh said.
Later, asked about the statement, he said, "The UCC bulldozer is to permanently polarise society."
In a letter to the panel chairperson Justice Ranjana Desai (retd), former Bombay High Court judge Chavan criticised the committee's approach, stating that reducing complex societal questions, such as delayed marriages, perversions, infertility, and rising matrimonial disputes, to binary options undermined the primary purpose of consensus-building.
The former judge said he had misunderstood that the committee aimed to gather views of the people of Maharashtra and to generate a consensus to remedy the issues of late marriages, infertility, unstable marriages, time-consuming dispute resolution mechanism and so on.
"Now that the misunderstanding is removed, I realise that the aim is to just provide an opportunity to people who may care, to share their responses, in a 'yes or no' format to the questions posed so that analysis of data becomes easy," the letter said.
In July, the state government set up a seven-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai to draft a framework for implementing the UCC, which seeks to establish equal laws across religions on issues about marriage, divorce, and property.
Justice Chavan, a former high court judge, resigned from the panel on September 19.
The Congress' statement also comes days after Shah said the BJP-led NDA governments in 21 states will introduce UCC before 2029. The next Lok Sabha polls are scheduled for 2029.
