The Pushkar Singh Dhami-led Uttarakhand government on Saturday held a cabinet meeting to discuss and approve the draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which would make way for the BJP-ruled state to become the first in the country to adopt the UCC.
Following the meeting, the Chief Minister spoke to reporters and said that many issues were discussed in the meeting, adding that “in this session”, they will bring UCC, “whatever formalities are being completed”.
Dhami noted that there will be another cabinet meeting, after which the “draft will be brought”.
Once the cabinet gives a green light, the bill is likely to be tabled during a special four-day session of the assembly that has already been convened from February 5-8.
This comes after a government-appointed panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, on Friday submitted a voluminous document to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who said the “long-awaited moment has arrived”.
As the Uttarakhand government gets closer to making UCC a reality, here’s all you need to know about the experts responsible for the draft.
The five-member committee, responsible for the UCC draft, is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. The expert committee had two sub-committees– the first panel consisting of Justice (retired) Permod Kohli, Gaur, and Singh was given the responsibility of drafting the code. The second one consisting of Gaur, Singh, and Dr Dangwal was given the responsibility of consulting stakeholders.
Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai
A retired Supreme Court justice, Desai had a law degree from the Government Law College in 1973 and later joined the legal profession. She was appointed government pleader at the Bombay High Court in 1979, and then Special Public Prosecutor for preventive detention matters at the High Court.
Desai headed several crucial search committees constituted by the government including the one to recommend a panel from which the chairperson and members of the Lokpal can be chosen. She also assumed charge as chairperson of the Delimitation Commission with effect from March 6, 2020, for Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland.
Justice (retired) Permod Kohli
Justice Kohli completed his law degree from the University of Jammu in 1972. He was appointed Additional Advocate General of Jammu and Kashmir during a period of Governor’s Rule in 1990 and later took over as the Advocate General of the then state.
In 2011, Kohli was made the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, from where he retired in 2013. Afterwards, he was appointed chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal.
Shatrughan Singh
Another member of the expert committee, Singh is the 1983-batch IAS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre and is an engineer by qualification. He became the 13th Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand in November 2015 and served in the post for a year.
After retirement, Singh was appointed the state’s Chief Information Commissioner by the then BJP government. Singh was also a member of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir Construction Committee.
Dr Surekha Dangwal
Dangwal, the Vice-Chancellor of Doon University in Dehradun, served as Head of the Department of English, Modern European and Other Foreign Languages, at the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in the city of Srinagar in Uttarakhand.
With a 34-year-long career in teaching and research experience, her research interests focus on South Asian Women’s Studies, Diaspora Literature and Literary Theory.
Manu Gaur
Gaur is an agriculturist by profession. He is also the president of TAXAB (Taxpayers Association of Bharat) and a prominent social worker.
He is said to have been instrumental in drafting the first-ever Responsible Parenthood Bill on population control. Gaur has also been working on the issue of UCC and population control since 2012.
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