Lucknow, July 5: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Wednesday said it has sent its objections on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to the Law Commission and demanded that tribals and religious minorities be kept out of the purview of such a statute.
The working committee of the Board had approved the draft response prepared on UCC in the executive meeting on June 27 and, on Wednesday, it was presented for discussion in the virtual general meeting of the Board, the spokesman of the Board, Kasim Rasool Ilyas, told PTI. This report was unanimously approved, after which it has been sent to the Law Commission, he said.
In a statement, the Board gave several arguments in support of its stand.
“National integrity, safety and security and fraternity are best preserved and maintained if we maintain the diversity of our country by permitting minorities and tribal communities to be governed by their own personal laws,” the statement issued by the office secretary of the Board, Mohammad Waquaruddin, said. It said that the fundamental religious book of Muslims, “being the holy Quran, Sunnah, fiqh (Islamic law) in the form of religious texts, which are matters of articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution, mandate its believers to follow the injunctions and the same are non-negotiable terms.
“Personal relationships of Muslims, guided by their personal laws, are directly derived from the holy Quran and Islamic laws and this aspect is linked with their identity. Muslims in India will not be agreeable to lose this identity of which there is space within the constitutional framework of our country”, the statement said. It said they were making this submission for multiple reasons because though the issue is purely legal, it has been fodder for politics. This matter becomes further important because this Commission’s predecessor had examined the very same issue and reached a conclusion that UCC is neither necessary nor desirable, the statement said. The AIMPLB draft analysed the existing civil laws and came to the conclusion that existing general/ uniform family laws are not truly uniform, even existing codified community based laws are not uniform.
The Law Commission had given time till July 14 to various parties and stakeholders to file their objections to the UCC. (PTI)
