Kolkata, July 11: The West Bengal government has formed a nine-member committee to study the draft of the ‘Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2026.’ This committee will be chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. The government has issued a notification announcing the names of the other eight members.
The committee, led by Justice Desai, will examine the bill aimed at implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in West Bengal and provide recommendations. A final draft of the bill is expected to be prepared and presented in the state assembly this August.
The remaining eight members of this high-powered committee include former Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy; West Bengal’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, Dushyant Nariyala; retired IAS officer Shatrughan Singh; West Bengal’s Home Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh; retired anthropology professor Ratna Bhattacharya; former Vice-Chancellor of Gour Banga University Gopal Chandra Mishra; Kolkata High Court lawyer Osman Gani Mallik; and former Executive Director of Bengal Division Nirmalya Bhattacharya.
The West Bengal Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, approved the draft of the bill on July 2. The Chief Minister also announced that the final bill would be introduced in the assembly in August after receiving suggestions from the committee.
CM Adhikari clarified that the proposed law would exclude the state’s tribal, indigenous, Kurmi, and other recognized ancient tribal communities. This exemption is based on models adopted by Uttarakhand and Gujarat.
The primary objective of the bill is to establish a single law across the state, rather than having different personal laws based on religion. Once implemented, West Bengal will become the fourth Indian state to adopt the UCC, following Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Assam.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had pledged to implement the Uniform Civil Code in West Bengal in its election manifesto for the recent assembly elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasized the need for the UCC during nearly all his election rallies in the state.
Shortly after taking office, the new state government led by CM Adhikari initiated steps to implement the Uniform Civil Code as soon as possible.
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