15.9.19

Uniform Civil Code not practical : Muslim bodies

A day after Supreme Court’s strong observations on the Uniform Civil Code, members of prominent Muslim minority organisations said that a Uniform Civil Code was “neither practical, nor possible to implement” in a country with so much diversity.

Cutting across organisations they questioned the idea of UCC citing different personal laws and diverse cultural backgrounds of communities even within one religion.

Prominent members of the Minority organisations like All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also cited the Law Commission’s consultation paper on family laws released last year on August 31. AIMPLB had then welcomed the Law Commission’s assertion that a Uniform Civil Code is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage. The AIMPLB had reiterated its position that it was not open to changes in the personal law and reform as suggested by the commission will happen only through the “social framework”.

“Even the law Commission in its consultative paper concedes that the UCC is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage. I am of the view that enforcing a UCC in India is impractical,” AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Sayyid Wali Remhami said. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had welcomed the Law Commission’s assertion on August 31 that a UCC is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage. The AIMPLB had reiterated its position that it was not open to changes in the personal law and reform as suggested by the commission will happen only through the “social framework”.

Over a year later, the debate on UCC is once again in the limelight. The SC on Friday frowned on the failure of governments to heed Article 44 of the Constitution to promulgate a UCC for the entire country despite the lag of 63 years since codification of Hindu law in 1956.

“We have so much diversity in personal laws. How can one UCC apply to all. If the government at some stage does manage to bring in a UCC using its majority power in Parliament it will open a Pandora’s box of troubles in terms of on-ground implementation,” member of the AIMPLB Kamal Faruqui added. Jamiat Ulama -i- Hind’s senior functionary Niaz Ahmed Farooqui too said that the UCC was impossible to implement.

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