“We strongly urge upon you (the Law Commission) to desist from the process of promulgation of UCC without the consensus from the respective communities, religious groups and organisations due to its serious repercussions on the rights of individuals and religious denominations under Articles 25 and 26.”
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on Monday urged people to respond to the Law Commission’s notice on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) by using the barcode prepared by it.
At its working committee meeting, presided over by Maulana Mahmood Asa’d Madani, here on Sunday, the Jamiat also elaborated on its 14-point arguments that the Muslim Personal Laws are based on the Holy Qur’an and authentic Hadiths, and not on any customs and traditions, and if a uniform civil code is implemented, especially rights of women will be done away with.
The main thrust of the Jamiat objection is the manner in which the present exercise was being undertaken without any terms of reference, blueprint, and justification. It said: “We strongly urge upon you (the Law Commission) to desist from the process of promulgation of UCC without the consensus from the respective communities, religious groups and organisations due to its serious repercussions on the rights of individuals and religious denominations under Articles 25 and 26.”
It also noted that the diversity of the country, the basic feature of our social structure, shall be affected and this will seriously impact the national integration of our country.
The Jamiat maintains that a “mandatory uniform code on family-matrimonial laws shall be preposterous to our nation governed by the principles of secularism, a basic feature of the India Constitution and unique to the Indian subcontinent, a nation where existing codes on criminal and civil law are not uniform, to begin with, and are embedded with inclusive and secular principles based on diversity of the nation.”
It said a mandatory UCC shall be a blanket imposition of one identity on a country whose inhabitants bear diverse identities. And a uniform code of family laws shall severely impact the cultural rights protected under the fundamental rights.
“A mandatory uniform code shall be an affront to the cherished principle of legal pluralism and it shall push our country many steps back from inclusivity and tolerance,” the Jamiat said.
