Ex-Judge R C Chavan Resigns From Maharashtra UCC panel, Questions Handling Of Public Feedback

Former Bombay High Court judge Justice R C Chavan has resigned from the Maharashtra government's panel to prepare a draft for implementing the Uniform Civil Code, citing serious reservations over its decision to restrict public feedback on crucial social issues to a "Yes/No" format.

In a letter to the panel chairperson Justice Ranjana Desai (retd), the former judge 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.

In the letter, Justice Chavan (retd) said that while one of the agenda items in the committee meeting was to finalise the questionnaire, the chairperson had already circulated the questions finalised by her and stated the questionnaire would be uploaded once the website was functioning.

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.

In his resignation letter, he raised several concerns and alleged that meetings were being concluded without substantive discussion.

Agenda items such as confirmation of minutes, website modifications and finalisation of questionnaires were disposed of quickly on the directions of the chairperson, he claimed.

He also flagged the involvement of an officer from outside the state in the panel.

"Maharashtra officers may feel they are not competent to do this duty that an officer from another state had to be called," he stated.

The former judge further said, "It may also be that he did not know as to where to fit the officer in (the committee's functioning).

"To solve this problem, I am vacating my seat on the committee by resigning now, so that the government can fill in the blank promptly," he added.

Justice Chavan (retd) further said that the committee assignment had been a learning experience and wished the panel well.

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 other members of the panel are former high court judge S G Mehare, Maharashtra ex-chief secretary D K Jain, former advocate general Virendra Saraf, constitutional expert Ramesh Patange and educationist Suvarna Rawal.

Last week, 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.

NCP MLC Idris Naikwadi had raised concerns over the panel’s composition, saying it has no representation from minority communities.

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.

Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to implement UCC. Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh assemblies have also passed UCC bills.