Kolkata, July 11 (IANS) The Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari-led government has issued a notification naming the other eight members of the nine-member committee headed by retired Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to study the draft of the Uniform Civil Code Bill, West Bengal, 2026.

Aiming to implement a Uniform Civil Code in West Bengal, the committee headed by Justice Desai will study the Bill and give recommendations, following which the final Bill will be drafted and tabled on the floor of the Assembly in August this year.

The other eight members of the high-powered committee are former Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy, West Bengal’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi Dushyant Nariala, West Bengal Home Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh, retired anthropology professor Ratna Bhattacharya, former vice-chancellor of Gour Banga University, Gopal Chandra Mishra, Calcutta High Court advocate Osman Gani Mallick and former executive director of Bengal Sambhag, Nirmalya Bhattacharya.

The West Bengal Cabinet led by the new and the ninth Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari cleared the draft of the Bill on July 2.

He also announced that on receiving the recommendations from the high-powered committee, the final Bill will be tabled in the West Bengal Assembly in August this year.

Chief Minister Adhikari also clarified that the state’s tribals, indigenous people, Kurmis and other recognised ancient tribal communities will be kept outside the purview of the proposed law.

He also said that the exception is being made following the model adopted by Uttarakhand and Gujarat.

The main purpose of the Bill is to implement a single law across the state, instead of having separate personal laws on the basis of religion, the Chief Minister said.

Once implemented, West Bengal will be the fourth Indian state to implement UCC after Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Assam.

Implementing the Uniform Civil Code in West Bengal was promised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its election manifesto for the recently concluded Assembly polls.

In fact, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, in almost all the campaign rallies that he addressed in the state, emphasised the need for implementing the Uniform Civil Code in the state.

Immediately after coming to power, the new state government led by CM Adhikari took the initiative for implementing the Uniform Civil Code in the state at the earliest.

–IANS

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