Gujarat became the third Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled State after Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh to formally work towards implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the State. Gujarat goes to the polls in December this year.

The State Cabinet met on Saturday and decided to form a high-level committee under the retired justice of the Supreme Court/ High Court to assess and prepare a draft to implement the UCC in the State.

Jitu Vaghani, Spokesperson Minister of the Gujarat Government, informed that the State cabinet has empowered the Chief Minister to form the high-level committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court/High Court judge.

Notably, the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh, heading for the Assembly elections next month, had expressed its willingness to implement the UCC. Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister, had already supported the implementation of UCC. The BJP-ruled Uttarakhand also announced the formation of an expert committee for UCC in May 2022.

The Gujarat Government’s decision comes barely days ahead of the Election Commission’s likely announcement of poll dates next week. The political observers view the move as a big attempt by the ruling BJP to consolidate the majority voter base in its favour.

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“This is a historic decision and a historic moment. The Chief Minister has taken this important decision that ensures common right of the people over national resources and every citizen of the State gets the right to be treated equally. We welcome this decision,” Vaghani said.

The Chief Minister will form the committee, which will consider legal aspects as per the Constitutional provisions and consider all the dimensions around the Code. It will then make recommendations to the State Government.

Soon after the announcement, C R Paatil, Gujarat BJP chief, wrote in a Twitter post, “Under the UCC, there will be no separate Islamic laws (Shariat Act) for family succession, marriage, waqf, adoption, divorce, gifting among others. The UCC will give equal rights to every individual, and every law will be implemented equally.”

UCC proposes to implement the personal law of the citizens equally, irrespective of their religion or gender. In its Lok Sabha poll manifesto, the BJP had promised to implement UCC across the country if voted to power. However, the Centre has left it to the State Legislative Assemblies to enact this legislation.

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