New Delhi, 5 Jul: Amid the raging debate over the Uniform Civil Code, senior Congress leader and former law minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Law Commission and all political leaders not to open the \u201cPandora\u2019s box\u201d on personal laws and \u201ccreate chaos\u201d in the society.
\nHe also alleged that it was an issue that was intended to divide the society, destabilise the country and demolish the diversity enjoyed in Indian society.
\nIn a statement, Moily underlined that Article 25 provides for the Right to Freedom of Religion.
\n\u201cPrime Minister Narendra Modi has recently given a public thrust to Uniform Civil Code (UCC). Even though the Constitution of India makes a mention of the UCC, the founding fathers of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly had chosen not to make it mandatory, as it involves the diversity of Indian society,\u201d said Moily, who was the law minister in the UPA-II government from May 2009 to May 2011.
\nUniformity or commonality of the civil code for all regions and cultures of India is a different matter, he argued. \u201cIt would entail breaking the promise made to Nagas and Mizos to not interfere in their customs and could feed secessionist sentiments that are active to varying degrees in the region,\u201d Moily said.
\nHe added that this will have repercussions not only for minorities such as Muslims, Christians, it will also have substantial effect on Sikhs, Jains, Buddhist and hundreds of tribes and among various sects in Hindus such as Aliyasantana in Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka and Marumakkathayam in Kerala.
\n\u201cAs expected, UCC is envisaged as a Muslim issue, forgetting other diversities prevailing in the country,\u201d he alleged.
\nMoily noted that the 21st Law Commission of India had declared that the UCC is neither necessary nor desirable.
\nHe said that the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had already framed seven questions of law linked to religious freedom, rights and practices in the Sabarimala case. The first of the seven questions is what is the scope and ambit of Right to Freedom of Religion under Article 25 of the Constitution, he pointed out and noted that the said reference is still pending in the Supreme Court.
\nThe 22nd Law Commission of India has rushed to issue a public notice for a fresh debate on the Uniform Civil Code, he said.
\n\u201cThe statement of the prime minister at the most may be a platitude in the meeting of the BJP party and may be a part of the BJP manifesto for the forthcoming Lok Sabha election of 2024,\u201d Moily said.
\nNeither any state nor the next Parliament can rush to the UCC legislation in the absence of a full-fledged report of the 22nd Law Commission or the judgment of the Supreme Court which had framed seven questions of law, he asserted.
\nThe right to preserve one\u2019s religious identities through personal laws cannot be annulled by a premature proclamation of the prime minister, the senior Congress leader said.
\nHe said that it should not be forgotten that the report of the 21st Law Commission of India will have to be debated and the Supreme Court should also come out with its verdict. \u201cAll the debates which are taking place now are premature, short-sighted and tend to create hatred in the society. Such debates are also intended to sabotage the concept of secularism which has always been upheld by the founding fathers of the Constitution,\u201d Moily said.
\n\u201cI appeal to the prime minister of India, the Law Commission and all the political leaders not to open up the Pandora\u2019s box on personal laws and create chaos in the society which is intended to divide the society and destabilise the country and to demolish the diversity enjoyed in the Indian society,\u201d he said.
\nUCC refers to a common set of laws that are applicable to all the citizens of India that is not based on religion and dealing with marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption among other matters.
\nThe Law Commission had on June 14 initiated a fresh consultation process on UCC by seeking views from stakeholders, including public and recognised religious organisations, on the politically sensitive issue.
\nAddressing a gathering of party workers in Bhopal last week, Prime Minister Modi had made a strong pitch for the UCC, saying that the Constitution calls for equal rights for all citizens.
\nModi had also said the opposition is using the issue of UCC to mislead and provoke the Muslim community. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 5 Jul: Amid the raging debate over the Uniform Civil Code, senior Congress leader and former law minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Law Commission and all political leaders not to open the \u201cPandora\u2019s box\u201d on personal laws and \u201ccreate chaos\u201d in the society. He also alleged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-219800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}