KOZHIKODE: The move to implement the uniform civil code has once again become a bone of contention after the Shah Banu case rocked the state in 1980s. While dealing with a case on triple talaq, the Supreme Court had recently asked the union government about the delay in executing a common civil code for all. The Narendra Modi government has asked the Law Commission to examine the issue which has triggered a heated debate in the country.
While a major section of conservative Muslim clerics and political leaders launched a blitzkrieg against the move terming it as another step in the anti-minority agenda of the BJP and the RSS, another section of leaders, scholars and young professionals says that it is high time the UCC is implemented to save the larger interests of the majority population, including Muslim women.
The Supreme Court has been considering a host of complaints filed by individuals from minority communities, particularly Muslim women, on crucial issues like divorce, property rights, adoption and maintenance. Rather than the laws mentioned in the scriptures and holy texts, it is the wisdom of humanity that should judge the mundane needs, rights and issues of the people, it was pointed out.
Enshrined in the directive principles of the Constitution, even after six decades of Independence, the personal laws based on religion continue to keep the communities in water tight compartments. Though the BJP is taking a strong stand on the issue, the recent RSS state conference had called for implementing the UCC only after discussions aiming at reaching a consensus among the communities. Mr C.T. Abdurahim, Islamic scholar and patron of Dayapuram Educational and Cultural Centre, told DC that though prophet Muhammad is for all times, his life and deeds only provide fundamental principles for Muslims.
“Based on these principles, there is a need to devise a way of life that understands history, social conditions, political system, technology, tradition and culture,” he said. “This necessitates research by scholars who can understand these aspects for actualising the inclusive and egalitarian spirit of Islam,” he added.
Muslim women have been the most affected as they are kept under outdated religious laws with moorings in the Arabian civilisation. Nisa, a progressive Muslim women's forum based in Kozhikode and headed by woman activist V.P. Suhra, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in March seeking to declare sections in the Muslim personal law dealing with the practice of triple talaq, polygamy, nikah halala (bar against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man) and inequality in intestate succession as unconstitutional.
To ensure equal justice for the Muslim women, Ms Zuhra, who has been fighting for Muslim women's rights for many decades, also had sought to implead herself in the suo motu PIL titled 'Muslim women's quest for equality,' 2015, registered by the apex court last October.
Ms Suhra told DC that the uniform civil code should be implemented to ensure equal justice for all citizens. “We have been fighting for it for many decades,” she added. “The conservative clerics have come out in the open even as the government has only referred it to the Law Commission,” she added. On the stand of Nisa, she said the organisation would come up with its opinion soon. “We are party to many of the legal battles. So we cannot speak without assessing the legal implications,” she added.
“We are demanding the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all Indians which have been denied in the name of Muslim personal law so far,” she added. “We are asking for the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all Indians,” she said. Writer Maina Umaiban is a bit hesitant though she stands for the implementation of UCC. “The law should treat all equally. But I am a bit scared as it is the NDA that is in the saddle. Their credibility in protecting the minorities is under question,” she said.
All minorities, including Christians, Jains, Budhists and other communities should be heard before the implementation,” Ms Maina added. The apex court had also admitted another petition filed by a Muslim woman challenging the practice of triple talaq as unconstitutional, and issued notice to the centre, tagging the petition along with the suo motu PIL. The petition also referred to the practice of triple talaq whereby the husband can dissolve the marriage by pronouncing talaq three times in the presence of at least two persons, and not necessarily in the presence of the wife which the petitions said “is most primitive and goes against the sanctity of marriage.”
The practice of Muslim men being permitted to have up to four wives was unfair. It also stated that the succession rules in Muslim personal laws grossly violated the right to equality as they stipulated that if a Muslim man died intestate leaving behind an only daughter, she has to share the property with his brothers/sisters while such is not the case when the deceased is survived by an only son.
Noted Sunni scholar Kanthapuram A.P. Abubacker Muzaliar, who is heading the AP Sunni faction, is evasive on the uniform civil code. “We have a strong opinion on the issue and we will express it at the right moment,” he said. The AP Sunni Sunni faction has close ties with the NDA regime.
