Kolkata: A Bill on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in West Bengal will be tabled on the floor of the State Assembly on Monday, making West Bengal the fourth Indian state to adopt a system replacing the existing religion-based personal laws with a single, unified set of civil laws that apply equally to all citizens, irrespective of religion, caste or tribe.
The three other states that have already adopted the UCC are Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Assam.
“The decision to move the Bill was taken at a meeting convened by Speaker Rathindra Bose within the Assembly premises on Thursday evening. The meeting continued for some time. A total of five Bills will be placed on the floor of the House on Monday, of which one, and presumably the most important, is the Bill on the UCC,” said a member of the West Bengal Assembly, who declined to be named.
It is learnt that, at the meeting, it was also decided that a total of one hour would be allotted for discussion on the Bills and that the Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, would himself participate in the discussion.
The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee, is also scheduled to participate in the discussion.
The development, according to political observers, is in line with the promise made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his addresses at successive campaign rallies ahead of the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, where he committed to enforcing the UCC in West Bengal.
Another important Bill that will be placed on the floor of the Assembly on Monday is titled “The West Bengal Public Safety & Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, 2026”, which seeks to address anti-social activities in the state.
The proposed legislation differs from the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, in two principal respects.
First, if a person is identified as a threat to public safety, the Bill, once enacted, would permit preventive detention for up to one year.
Second, it grants the state government the power to confiscate the property of a person involved in such offences by invoking the relevant provisions of the BNS.
(IANS)
