NDA unlikely to push for uniform civil code in this tenure

There is only a bleak possibility that the Union government would push for the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the near future, official sources closely connected with the exercise told The Sunday Guardian.

According to official sources, it was virtually impossible to bring in a UCC now, considering the political environment in the country. “In the present time it is virtually impossible to bring any kind of UCC in the country. A lot of deliberation is being done on this issue and even though nothing can be said conclusively, it can be safely said that the UCC in the near future is virtually impossible. The north-eastern parts of the country, the state of Jammu and Kashmir (which together constitutes more than 25% of the country) are totally different from the rest of India when it comes to personal laws. It is a difficult task to codify all these differences under one head,” an official source said.

According to sources, the government is likely to push for piece by piece reforms rather than go for sweeping changes envisaged in the UCC. “You have seen that the objection to practices like triple talaq and nikah halala came from within the community, following which the executive and the judiciary came into the picture.  That is the best way to bring in reforms, which ultimately is the aim of UCC,” the official said.

Last week, in an interaction with The Sunday Guardian, B.S. Chauhan, the chairman of the Law Commission of India, which among other issues, is also deliberating on the topic of UCC, had said that it was in the “advanced level of deliberations”. He had said that if the present commission, whose tenure gets over this month, is not able to arrive at a report on UCC, the next commission would deliberate and prepare a report on it.

The Law Commission had in October 2016, after receiving a directive from the Union Law Ministry, released a “Questionnaire on Uniform Civil Code”, seeking representations from the general public and stakeholders on the topic of UCC. Sources said that the Law Commission, in all likelihood, will suggest bringing in reforms in personal laws in all religions separately rather than going for one binding law.