Parliamentary panel reviews Goa's uniform civil code

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has reviewed Goa’s uniform civil code and some of its members feel that there are some peculiar and outdated provisions related to matrimony in it, sources said on Sunday.

The Goa Civil Code, a set of civil laws that governs all residents of the coastal state irrespective of their religion and ethnicity, has come under focus amid a call for the implementation of a uniform civil code (UCC) across the country.

Citing various positives of the Goa Civil Code, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said earlier that it could be a model for implementing the UCC across the country.

With several BJP-ruled states such as Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh expressing their intention to implement the UCC, members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel chaired by BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi visited Goa in June to study and review its uniform civil code.

The committee had a few queries regarding the civil code and how it is being implemented in Goa, sources said, adding that senior state officials responded to the questions.

It was observed that a majority of the state’s people are “quite happy and content with it”, the sources said.

There were, however, some peculiar clauses in the law related to matrimony and division of property, which were outdated and not based on the principle of equality, they said.

The Uniform Civil Code features prominently on the BJP’s ideological agenda and the party had made promises about it in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2019.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha earlier, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government had asked the Law Commission to examine various issues on the matter and make recommendations.

The UCC refers to a common set of laws governing personal matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, and succession, that will apply to all citizens irrespective of their religion, caste, and gender.