Retired Bombay High Court judge Justice R C Chavan has resigned from the Maharashtra government’s committee tasked with preparing a framework for implementing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state, raising concerns over the manner in which the panel was functioning and its approach to seeking public feedback.
Justice Chavan sent his resignation on September 19, hours after the seven-member committee held an online meeting. The state government accepted his resignation Monday. The committee, constituted in July and headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai, has been tasked with preparing draft rules and recommendations for a UCC in Maharashtra.
Questions feedback process
In his resignation letter, Justice Chavan questioned the decision to seek responses to complex social issues largely through a “yes or no” format. He said he had understood the exercise as an attempt to gather the views of people across Maharashtra and build a broader consensus on issues such as delayed marriages, infertility, unstable marriages and delays in resolving matrimonial disputes.
Justice Chavan said one of the key items on the committee meeting’s agenda was finalising a questionnaire for public feedback. Members had sought to put forward suggestions on how the questionnaire should be framed, but, according to him, a questionnaire finalised by the chairperson had already been circulated and was to be uploaded once the panel’s website became operational.
He said he subsequently realised that the exercise was intended to provide people an opportunity to respond to specific questions in a binary format so that the resulting data could be analysed more easily. His resignation letter indicated that he differed with this approach to public consultation.
Flags panel functioning
Justice Chavan also raised concerns over the manner in which meetings were being conducted, alleging that agenda items were being concluded without substantive deliberations. Matters including confirmation of minutes, modifications to the panel’s website and finalisation of the questionnaire were dealt with quickly, he claimed.
The former judge also questioned the presence and role of an official from outside Maharashtra at a committee meeting. He said he was unclear about where the official fitted into the panel’s functioning and questioned why an officer from outside the state had been brought into the exercise.
Justice Chavan said he was vacating his position so that the Maharashtra government could fill the resulting vacancy promptly. He described his time on the committee as a learning experience and wished the panel well.
Seven-member panel
The Maharashtra government constituted the seven-member committee in July to prepare a framework for a common civil code in the state. Besides Justice Desai as chairperson, the panel included Justice Chavan, former High Court judge S G Mehare, former Maharashtra chief secretary D K Jain, former advocate general Virendra Saraf, constitutional expert Ramesh Patange and educationist Suvarna Rawal.
A UCC seeks a common set of civil laws governing matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession, replacing religion-specific personal laws in areas covered by the proposed code. The issue has remained politically and socially contested, with supporters arguing that common civil laws would promote legal uniformity and equality, while critics have raised concerns over religious freedom, diversity and the manner in which such a code may be framed.
Justice Chavan’s resignation has come while the Maharashtra panel is still working on its public consultation process and the framework it is expected to recommend to the state government.