Overview
- A Rajasthan committee led by retired justice Ranjana Prakash Desai began divisional hearings and launched an online portal on Monday to collect answers to 19 questions on a proposed Uniform Civil Code with submissions open until July 25.
- The state Congress has announced it will boycott the consultations unless the government first places a draft bill in the public domain, saying hearings without a draft prevent informed feedback and risk stoking social tension.
- Rajasthan BJP leaders defend the consultation as a consensus-building exercise and ministers have signalled the government may introduce a UCC bill in the next assembly session.
- The questionnaire asks about core family-law issues — marriage, divorce, inheritance, property rights and whether live-in relationships should be registered or attract divorce-like rules — and has raised concerns over committee impartiality because it includes a member linked to an RSS body.
- The move follows a wider, state-by-state push by BJP governments, with Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Assam already acting and Madhya Pradesh’s chief minister publicly saying his state will implement a UCC this month, a pattern that could create conflicting rules across states and shape near-term legislative fights.