UCC vital for national integration, says former CJI Ranjan Gogoi

Former Chief Justice of India and member of the Rajya Sabha Ranjan Gogoi referred to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as a "progressive piece of legislation" on Jan 19, calling it a "significant step towards national integration."

But before putting it into effect, he encouraged the government to foster consensus.

The former CJI said, "The UCC is a progressive piece of legislation, which will replace diverse customary practices that have evolved in the law," while addressing "Challenges for the Judiciary" at the Surat Litfest 2025.

“I think it is an important step towards national integration. It does not come in conflict with Articles 25 and 26 (of the Constitution), which is the right to religion. The UCC will touch on adoption, marriage, divorce, and inheritance. It is working wonderfully in Goa,” he said.

“Consensus building should be done, and checks should be made for misinformation. It is the only way to bring the nation together. Today, you have diverse customs and practices that culminate in law governing civil and personal matters that affect social justice. A nation can’t afford to have so many laws,” Gogoi said.

“But I would request the government and parliamentarians not rush into it and build a consensus. Tell the people of the nation what the UCC is. People will understand; one section of people will never understand; they will pretend not to understand, forget that… But we have to look ahead,” he added.

"The government should increase the number of judges in the country from the present 24,000 to 1 lakh to overcome the delay in getting justice to the litigants," the former Chief Justice said in reference to lowering court pendency.

“Currently, there are 5 crore cases, and when I demitted the office (of CJI) in 2019, there were 3 crore cases. The solution is not unsolvable; to solve it, it requires will and courage,” he said.

“We have to segregate cases—cases of importance, cases of substance, and others. In many cases, the litigants are dead, and their heirs are not bothered by the cases. Such cases are known as dead cases, which are good in the proportion of pending cases. Such dead cases should be closed,” Gogoi added.

He continued, “There is no discussion on how to start dealing with such cases…. Nobody is interested in it. To solve such problems, the CJI should take the initiative to find live cases and work on it.”

Regarding "One Nation, One Election," he said, “Former President of India Ramnath Kovind had taken reviews from five former SC judges. Some gave reviews, and some didn’t. I have given my support to it. Every year, the country goes for elections. MCC is imposed. This all affects governance. Every six months, our country witnesses elections in various states. A lot of workforce and money is involved, and it brings the state to a halt.”