Meet Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, The Woman Behind Gujarat’s UCC Draft

After Uttarakhand, now the Gujarat government has also started the process of preparing the draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). For this, Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel has constituted a committee, which will be headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. Apart from him, four other members have also been included in this committee. As per the stipulated time frame, the committee will submit its report to the government within 45 days.

Gujarat has become the second state in the country to have decided to prepare the UCC draft. The special thing is that Gujarat has also chosen the same retired judge Ranjana Desai for this responsibility, who played an important role in preparing the report on the civil code in Uttarakhand.

Who is retired judge Ranjana Prakash Desai?

Ranjana Prakash Desai was born in Mumbai in the year 1949. Desai did her early education from Elphinstone College in Mumbai. Later she came to a government college to study law. In her article in the Indian Advocate magazine, Ranjana writes - When I decided to join the law, my father opposed it.

Ranjana's father SG Samant was a famous lawyer of Mumbai at that time. According to Ranjana, her father wanted her to study economics, too by going to London. According to Ranjana, her father-in-law also had objections to her practice.

Ranjana Desai writes in her article - After father's opposition, I started working in my relative's chamber. Here I got a client, a member of whose family was in jail for a long time. He was constantly troubled for bail. He offered me the case

According to Ranjana Desai, she got Rs 35 for this case. Initially, the lower court dismissed the case, after which Ranjana went to the High Court. There, after hearing Ranjana's arguments, the judge granted bail to the accused. This was the first big victory of Ranjana's career.

Her career as a judge

In 1996, Ranjana was appointed as a judge in the Mumbai High Court. After working for about 15 years in the High Court, Ranjana came to the Supreme Court in 2011. The collegium had recommended her name. Ranjana could remain a judge in the country's highest court for only 3 years.

After retirement, Ranjana has led many commissions. Delimitation and UCC commissions are prominent among them. Ranjana Desai is married to Prakash Desai.

Important decisions as Supreme Court judge

Ranjana Desai made many important decisions while being a judge in the Supreme Court. Among these, her decision on black money and Nityananda's virility test is prominent. Nityananda had reprimanded the central government regarding black money. Both these decisions were discussed a lot at that time.

While hearing an important case, Ranjana Desai had said that under the Goonda Act, no person can be kept in jail for 12 months continuously. Ranjana had said in another decision that the court has the right and power to call any witness at any time.

Desai was also a part of the bench that gave the decision to hang Ajmal Amir Kasab, the culprit of the Mumbai attack, immediately. Desai has also been a judge in the hearing of the historic Sahara versus SEBI case.