Mumbai: Citing major concerns over how public feedback is being gathered, former Bombay High Court judge Justice RC Chavan has resigned from Maharashtra’s UCC drafting panel. In a letter to panel chairperson Justice Ranjana Desai (retd), Chavan voiced strong objections to the committee’s decision to limit public input on major social matters to simple “Yes/No” options. He argued that forcing complex, nuanced issues — including late marriages, infertility, sexual perversions, and escalating matrimonial conflicts — into binary choices fundamentally undermined the primary purpose of consensus-building.
In his letter, Justice Chavan noted that although finalizing the questionnaire was on the meeting agenda, the chairperson had already distributed her own completed version and announced it would be published online once the website went live. The former judge said he had mistakenly believed the committee’s goal was to gather public feedback across Maharashtra and build consensus on addressing issues like delayed marriages, infertility, marital instability, and slow dispute resolution.
“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.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the committee’s constitution on July 9. The committee has been given a six-month timeframe to examine the legal, social, cultural, and administrative aspects of the UCC, study the experiences of other states (like Uttarakhand, which implemented it earlier), and submit a comprehensive report.
The seven-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai shall draft a framework for implementing the UCC, which seeks to establish equal laws across religions on issues about marriage, divorce, and property. The other members of the panel are former high court judge S G Mehare, Maharashtra ex-chief secretary DK Jain, former advocate general Virendra Saraf, constitutional expert Ramesh Patange and educationist Suvarna Rawal.
In his resignation letter, Justice Chavan raised several concerns, alleging that meetings were routinely wrapped up without substantive discussion. He claimed that key agenda items — including the confirmation of minutes, website modifications, and questionnaire finalization —were rushed through at the chairperson’s direction.
On September 13, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he was confident that BJP-led NDA governments in 21 states will introduce UCC before 2029. The next Lok Sabha polls are due in 2029.
Last week, Mr Fadnavis said the state government would implement the UCC once the committee preparing the draft submits its report. The panel is working on the recommendations, and the government aims to table the legislation during the winter session of the state assembly in Nagpur, he added.
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