Gujarat HC upholds state's power to form Uniform Civil Code panel, dismisses plea over minority representation
A single bench of Justice Niral R Mehta on Tuesday rejected a plea challenging the constitution of the committee and seeking the court's direction for its reconstitution as there was no representation of minority communities.
The selection of the committee members would be "within the absolute domain of the state government," the court said.
On February 4 this year, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel announced the formation of the committee to assess the necessity of the UCC and also to draft a bill for it. The panel is chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai. Its members include retired IAS officer C L Meena, advocate R C Kodekar, former Vice Chancellor Dakshesh Thakar and social activist Geetaben Shroff.
In the detailed judgment made available on the HC's website, the bench noted the constitution of the committee was purely an administrative decision.The court said it was of the firm opinion that once the UCC committee has been constituted purely by an executive order under Article 162 of the Constitution of India, selection of its particular members would be "within the absolute domain of the state government." It is "perfectly justified for the state authorities to select the members of the committee and for which, writ of mandamus cannot be issued," it said. "By constituting a committee, it cannot be said that prejudice is caused to any class of people when more particularly it is always open for any class of people to make representation espousing their views on the Uniform Civil Code to the committee so constituted," the court said.It said in the absence of any statutory provisions, the authority cannot be expected or directed to act in a particular manner as it would be "unjustified and unwarranted interference in the purely administrative affairs of the state authorities," it said."Under the circumstances, I see no good reason to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India in a realm of administrative decisions taken under Article 162 of the Constitution of India by the State of Gujarat," the bench added.The court, therefore, cannot direct the state to act in a particular manner as any direction and/ or order in that regard would be "unjustified and unwarranted interference in the purely administrative affairs of the state authorities," it said.
The petitioner, Surat resident Abdul Vahab Sopariwala, had approached the HC seeking a direction to the state government to reconstitute the committee with fresh members with the knowledge and experience over the subject law, and adopt a consultative process involving all religious and cultural communities before any move to implement the UCC. His lawyer had argued that members of the present committee are not experts on the subject law and are interested parties, and therefore the selection of members is against the principles of fair play.Even when the committee was formed with the objective of implementation of the UCC, covering many personal laws and touching minorities, there was no representation of any minority communities in the panel, he said.The committee should thus be reconstituted by including representation from the minority communities so that real purpose and object of the constitution of the committee can be achieved, he had said in his submission.Advocate General Kamal Trivedi said in his submission that the constitution of the committee is purely an administrative action and has nothing to do with any statutory duty of the state government.There is, therefore, no legal requirement prescribed by any statute for and how such committee can be constituted, he said.
Accordingly, it cannot be said that the committee is in breach of any statutory or legal duties, for which the court would issue its prerogative writ of mandamus by exercising its extraordinary powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
EC to release Bihar draft electoral rolls today amid exclusion concerns
The Election Commission (EC) is all set to publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday following the completion of a month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. This would also kick off the process of "claims and objections", which would continue till September 1, and during the period, voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned seeking a remedy. The EC claims there were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began late last month. The process has faced criticism and protests from the opposition, with concerns over potential mass deletion of voters. In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with "enumeration forms", either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity. People also had the option of downloading and submitting these enumeration forms online. The process was over by July 25 and, according to the EC, "7.23 crore voters" submitted their enumeration forms, while 35 lakh were found to have "permanently migrated or gone untraceable". Another 22 lakh have been reported to be deceased, while seven lakh people were registered as voters in more than one electoral roll. The EC also claimed that enumeration forms were not submitted by 1.2 lakh voters. The mammoth exercise was carried out by BLOs deputed across 77,895 polling centres, assisted by 1.60 lakh BLAs and other volunteers, under the supervision of 243 EROs (Electors Registration Officers) and 2,976 Assistant EROs. Critics of the exercise, who felt it was being undertaken to "help" the ruling NDA in the upcoming polls, which the JD(U)-BJP combine will face with an incumbency of 20 years, moved the Supreme Court, which said earlier this week that the SIR should result in "en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion". Earlier, political leaders such as CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who is also one of the petitioners who moved the Supreme Court, had voiced concerns that the ruling dispensation would try to play its "the real game" during the claims and objections phase, with the help of "empowered" but pliant EROs and AEROs. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, recently created a flutter by threatening to "boycott" the upcoming elections if concerns were not addressed squarely. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
EC to release Bihar draft electoral rolls on Friday amidst voter exclusion concerns
The Election Commission (EC) is all set to publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday following the completion of a month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. This would also kick off the process of "claims and objections", which would continue till September 1, and during the period, voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned seeking a remedy. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category MCA Design Thinking Leadership Data Analytics Public Policy Cybersecurity MBA Data Science Healthcare Digital Marketing Product Management Project Management Others others Degree CXO PGDM Artificial Intelligence Technology Data Science Operations Management Finance Management Skills you'll gain: Programming Proficiency Data Handling & Analysis Cybersecurity Awareness & Skills Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Duration: 24 Months Vellore Institute of Technology VIT Master of Computer Applications Starts on Aug 14, 2024 Get Details The EC claims there were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began late last month. The process has faced criticism and protests from the opposition, with concerns over potential mass deletion of voters . In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with " enumeration forms ", either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity. Live Events People also had the option of downloading and submitting these enumeration forms online. The process was over by July 25 and, according to the EC, "7.23 crore voters" submitted their enumeration forms, while 35 lakh were found to have "permanently migrated or gone untraceable". Another 22 lakh have been reported to be deceased, while seven lakh people were registered as voters in more than one electoral roll. The EC also claimed that enumeration forms were not submitted by 1.2 lakh voters. The mammoth exercise was carried out by BLOs deputed across 77,895 polling centres, assisted by 1.60 lakh BLAs and other volunteers, under the supervision of 243 EROs (Electors Registration Officers) and 2,976 Assistant EROs. Critics of the exercise, who felt it was being undertaken to "help" the ruling NDA in the upcoming polls, which the JD(U)-BJP combine will face with an incumbency of 20 years, moved the Supreme Court, which said earlier this week that the SIR should result in "en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion". Earlier, political leaders such as CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who is also one of the petitioners who moved the Supreme Court, had voiced concerns that the ruling dispensation would try to play its "the real game" during the claims and objections phase, with the help of "empowered" but pliant EROs and AEROs. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav , recently created a flutter by threatening to "boycott" the upcoming elections if concerns were not addressed squarely. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
El Salvador approves indefinite presidential reelection, extends presidential terms to six years
SAN SALVADOR: The party of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele approved constitutional changes in the country's Legislative Assembly on Thursday that will allow indefinite presidential reelection and extend presidential terms to six years. Lawmaker Ana Figueroa from the New Ideas party had proposed the changes to five articles of the constitution. The proposal also included eliminating the second round of the election where the two top vote-getters from the first round face off. New Ideas and its allies in the Legislative Assembly quickly approved the proposals with the supermajority they hold. The vote passed with 57 in favor and three opposed. Bukele overwhelmingly won reelection last year despite a constitutional ban, after Supreme Court justices selected by his party ruled in 2021 to allow reelection to a second five-year term. Observers have worried that Bukele had a plan to consolidate power since at least 2021, when a newly elected Congress with a strong governing party majority voted to remove the magistrates of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court. Those justices had been seen as the last check on the popular president. Since then, Bukele has only grown more popular. The Biden administration's initial expressions of concern gave way to quiet acceptance as Bukele announced his run for reelection. With the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January, Bukele had a new powerful ally and quickly offered Trump help by taking more than 200 deportees from other countries into a newly built prison for gang members. Figueroa argued Thursday that federal lawmakers and mayors can already seek reelection as many times as they want. 'All of them have had the possibility of reelection through popular vote, the only exception until now has been the presidency,' Figueroa said. She also proposed that Bukele's current term, scheduled to end June 1, 2029, instead finish June 1, 2027, to put presidential and congressional elections on the same schedule. It would also allow Bukele to seek reelection to a longer term two years earlier. Marcela Villatoro of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), one of three votes against the proposals, told her fellow lawmakers that 'Democracy in El Salvador has died!' 'You don't realize what indefinite reelection brings: It brings an accumulation of power and weakens democracy... there's corruption and clientelism because nepotism grows and halts democracy and political participation,' she said. Suecy Callejas, the assembly's vice president, said that 'power has returned to the only place that it truly belongs ... to the Salvadoran people.' Bukele did not immediately comment. Bukele, who once dubbed himself 'the world's coolest dictator,' is highly popular, largely because of his heavy-handed fight against the country's powerful street gangs. Voters have been willing to overlook evidence that his administration, like others before it had negotiated with the gangs before seeking a state of emergency that suspended some constitutional rights and allowed authorities to arrest and jail tens of thousands of people. His success with security and politically has inspired imitators in the region who seek to replicate his style. Most recently, Bukele's government has faced international criticism for the arrests of high-profile lawyers who have been outspoken critics of his administration. One of the country's most prominent human rights group announced in July it was moving its operations out of El Salvador for the safety of its people, accusing the government of a 'wave of repression.'
