A six-member committee will be formed to give a final shape to a uniform civil code bill by August, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced in the Assembly on Monday.

He reaffirmed his government’s intent to enact the legislation, saying “Hobey, hobey, ebong hobeyi!”

In keeping with speculation in Bengal’s corridors of power this weekend, the committee will be headed by Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai, appointed chairperson of the Delimitation Commission of India by the Narendra Modi government. She has chaired similar UCC panels in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

While the BJP government has the numbers to railroad any bill through the Assembly whenever it wants, sources said it wanted to follow due process on the sensitive
UCC bill.

Constitutional experts, too, have advised the state government to take its time and make the bill legally “bulletproof”, they added. The government has enough time left before its self-imposed six-month deadline to enact a UCC expires in early November.

Suvendu said the current draft of the bill was drawn up on the basis of the UCC bills of Gujarat, Assam and Uttarakhand. The UCC will be brought before the cabinet for approval on July 2.

“Under this, a single law will operate in this state; laws will not operate based on religion,” he told the House.

“However… Adivasis, Kurmis and others who are our ancient, tribal, original inhabitants will remain outside the purview of this proposed bill,” he added, reissuing an assurance already given by state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya to a key support base.

Sources have said the UCC will enforce gender parity in inheritance, ban polygamy and child marriage regardless of religious sanction, and make the registration of live-in relationships with district magistrates mandatory on pain of a prison term.

Besides Justice Desai, the committee Suvendu announced will have a retired IAS officer, a legal expert (possibly Bengal advocate-general Surojit Nath Mitra), a senior academic, a prominent social worker, and an additional secretary from the state’s general administration department.

“The tasks assigned (to the Desai panel) are: Conduct a comprehensive study of the various personal and family laws prevailing in the state, including provisions related to marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession, adoption, and live-in relationships,” Suvendu said.

“I assure this House that this committee has been given four weeks. In the month of August, by accepting this committee’s recommendations, we will introduce the uniform civil code bill, and it will become effective in Bengal.”

As Speaker Rathindra Bose prepared to adjourn the House, the chief minister said that if the Opposition had any objections about the bill, they should take them to the panel.

“If you have anything to say, you can place your statements, data, and complaints before the committee,” he said.

“But mark my words: we are committed. We wrote in our Sankalp Patra that a UCC will be made effective in Bengal — hobey, hobey, ebong hobeyi!”