Mumbai: The 7-member drafting committee for Maharashtra’s Uniform Civil Code (UCC), set up in July, lost a member at its second online meeting as former Bombay high court judge R C Chavan resigned last week. He was critical of the panel framing a public feedback questionnaire by rendering complex social issues, including on marital matters, into binary ‘yes/no’ answers.In his resignation letter of Sept 19, accepted by govt on Sept 21, Chavan raised concerns over the panel’s procedure to allegedly rush into finalizing the questionnaire and questioned the presence of a “non-member” during a meeting.On Tuesday, Justice Chavan, 74, who was elevated as judge of HC in 2005, told TOI, “My views are immaterial, what youth wants, what people of Maharashtra want is material. I agree with youngsters that UCC can be built around 10 principles gathered from chats with them, without trampling on minority rights.’’“You can’t control the future with the past’’ he said, adding that what is key is “respect for individual autonomy.”He further said, “One must always try to improve over the earlier effort or achievement, critically evaluate and improve”. In other words, he said that with “adequate safeguards UCC could be the way ahead”.The former judge, considered by his peers to be principled and with extensive and varied experience as an administrator too, as he was the first Registrar General of HC, said, “If we steer clear of religion and gender while ensuring that religion/gender doesn’t interfere in protecting women, children and aged persons and respect autonomy of individuals and if we adopt suggestions of youth, I don’t see any conflict in ensuring uniformity”. The panel would be uploading its questions soon online for public feedback.Justice Chavan said he had no other issues with the panel’s functioning other than what he mentioned in his resignation email. “Let’s preserve our rainbow with minimal intrusion to ensure protection of women, children and aged parents,” he said.The email, addressed to the panel chair, former SC judge Ranjana Desai and others, said, “Considering the time so far lost it was indeed nice to have concluded today’s meeting quickly without beating around the bush.” He said three members tried to articulate their views on the simple yes and no answers or the need to have the questions examined professionally.He said he had attempted to air his views on the questionnaire under a “misunderstanding that our exercise was aimed at gathering views of people of Maharashtra and to generate a consensus to remedy the issues of late marriages, perversions, infertility, unstable marriages, time-consuming dispute resolution mechanism etc.” His said his misunderstanding stood “removed” as he realised the “aim is to just provide an opportunity to people who may care, to share their responses in yes or no to the questions posed so that analysis of data becomes easy.”The panel chief mentioned that a non-member was brought in to work on the website, said Justice Chavan. He vacated his seat on the committee, he added, “so that the government can fill in the blank promptly.”“A resolution notified quickly will help me tell those who meet me with the expectation that I will place their views before the committee that they must do it themselves. This will also relieve me from the injunction to avoid interactions. Now as a free citizen, I will be free to air my views,” his email said.BOXWhat youth want, according to ChavanSome principles conveyed by youth, according to Justice RC Chavan, around which youth want UCC to evolve:1. It should aim at preserving family as unit of society, providing safety and security2. All adult inter-personal intimate relationships should be allowed, without any stigma, leaving label of recognition to choice of society3. It should be gender-neutral4. It should be ‘areligious’ – not trampling upon any religious practice but confining it to private spaces5. It should ignore all birthrights in inheritance and all heirs should inherit property equally6. Agreements should provide for terms of separation, responsibility of children and aged parents
