4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Mar 17, 2026 06:36 AM ISTThe committee is headed by retired SC judge Ranjana DesaiA five-member expert committee that the Gujarat government set up in February 2025 to assess the need for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is expected to submit its report along with a draft law on Tuesday, sources have said.The draft law contains clauses similar to the UCC Act in Uttarakhand and is likely to be tabled during the ongoing Budget Session of the state Assembly that began on February 16. If passed, Gujarat will be the second state after Uttarakhand to adopt a common civil code, whose underlying theme is gender equality, government sources claimed.The expert panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai, who also led the panel in Uttarakhand, is likely to hand over the report to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in Ahmedabad.“The report and the draft law are more or less the same as the Uttarakhand law. But the proposed UCC law in Gujarat will have the clauses for punishments in law, whereas they were included in the rules and regulations in Uttarakhand,” said a source. This reaffirms that the Uttarakhand UCC law will serve as a template for similar common civil codes in other states as well.A source said the proposed law in Gujarat has three chapters: Marriage & Divorce, Succession, and Live-in Relations. “The marriageable age for girls will remain 18 years. Girls have equal property rights, polygamy is prohibited, and there will be clauses that make the registration of marriages and live-in relations, as well as divorce, and termination of live-in relationships mandatory. Like the Uttarakhand law, the Gujarat one also bans practices such as nikah halala and mandatory iddat while enforcing monogamy across all religions,” the source said.Nikah halala is a law that says if a Muslim man dissolves the marriage with a woman for the third time, he can remarry her only if she first marries another man, consummates the marriage, and only if that second man dies or willingly asks for divorce. Iddat, meanwhile, is a mandatory waiting period in Islamic law that a woman must observe after the dissolution of her marriage, either through the death of her husband or divorce.During the ongoing Assembly session, the Gujarat government has also proposed a law to make parental consent compulsory for marriages.Story continues below this adLast month, Justice Desai said implementation of the UCC in Gujarat would create a “progressive and equality-based legal framework and every citizen will get equal justice and rights”.Apart from Justice Desai, the four other members of the Gujarat panel were: former IAS officer C L Meena, advocate R C Kodekar, educationist Dakshesh Thaker, and social worker Geetaben Shroff. The committee, which was initially supposed to submit a report in 45 days, met several social and religious organisations, political leaders across parties, and other stakeholders during the consultation phase. It conducted physical hearings in all districts across the state. The committee held its last meeting in Delhi on February 18.The Justice Desai-led panel in Uttarakhand had retired Delhi High Court judge Pramod Kohli, social activist Manu Gaur, former Chief Secretary Shatrughan Singh, and Doon University Vice-Chancellor Surekha Dangwal. That panel conducted an extensive consultation process before finalising the report and drafting the law. “It was meant to be the template for UCC laws in other states and for the one at the national level, whenever the Centre makes a move for it,” said a source.Since then, some petitions have been filed in the Uttarakhand High Court in Nainital against the UCC law’s provisions. “However, no judgment has come out against the law and neither has the court made observations criticising it,” the source added.Have been in journalism covering national politics for 23 years. Have covered six consecutive Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls in almost all the states. Currently writes on ruling BJP. Always loves to understand what's cooking in the national politics (And ventures into the act only in kitchen at home). ... Read More © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd