Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said the uniform civil code imposed by the Uttarakhand government and the one proposed by Gujarat go against the idea of a uniform civil code.

“The Uttarakhand uniform civil code is a poorly drafted piece of legislation that is highly intrusive. It is not an instrument of legal reform in the slightest as there is nothing that addresses the actual concerns expressed with regard to family law over the last decade. It has been forcibly imposed as an integral part of the BJP's divisive agenda,” Ramesh wrote on his ‘X’ (earlier known as Twitter) handle.

“It (UCC) cannot become a political instrument designed to keep the country in a state of permanent polarisation,” Ramesh said.

On January 27 Uttarakhand became the first Indian state to implement the UCC, which among other issues regulates live-in relationships, making registration of live-in couples mandatory and to obtain a certificate from a religious leader to prove the couple is eligible for marriage in case they decide to tie the knot.

On Tuesday the BJP government in Gujarat announced a five-member panel to draft a UCC bill. Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel has said that the panel led by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai, who had also headed the panel that drafted the Uttarakhand UCC laws, will submit its report in 45 days.

Other members of Gujarat include IAS (retd) CL Meena, Advocate RC Kodekar, educationist Dakshesh Thaker and social worker Geetaben Shroff.

“The Constituent Assembly, while agreeing to what became Article 44 in the Constitution of India, could not have envisaged a large number of uniform civil codes passed in state legislatures in a piecemeal manner. Multiple uniform civil codes go against the very idea of what Article 44 states as ' a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.' A uniform civil code as envisaged in Article 44 can only come about after widespread debate and discussion with the objective of building a genuine consensus,” wrote Ramesh.