23 July 2003

UNIFORM CIVIL CODE: BJP GLADDENED BY APEX COURT'S OBSERVATION

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: The Bhartiya Janata Party was gladdened by the Supreme Court once again stressing an urgency to promote national integration by enacting a uniform civil code for all Indian citizens as envisaged under the directive principles of the Constitution.

In an immediate reaction, party spokesman Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra on Wednesday said the BJP had always campaigned for the common civil code and it would raise it at the next meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to persuade other partners to see the rationale in the light of the Supreme Court's observation.

"Common civil code does not mean the Hindu Civil Code. If there can be a common criminal code, why not also have a common civil code," Malhotra said at the party's daily press briefing while hoping that the Congress would see the wisdom in no longer opposing the civil code as infringing upon some religions.

The common civil code was one of the three controversial issues that the BJP had put on the back-burner to enable it to form the NDA with other secular parties, other two issues being the Ram Temple at Ayodhya and abolition of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

It is not for the first time that the Supreme Court has stressed the need of having a common civil code. Earlier also it had not only called for it but wanted it enacted within one year.

Malhotra wanted all political parties, including Congress and the NDA allies, to accept the Supreme Court's sane advice in a judgment delivered on Wednesday that "there is no necessary connection between religious and personal law in a civilised society" and in fact "a common civil code will promote national integration."

Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said his party was not against "samajik parivartan (social changes)" but it always advocated such changes to come from within the society and not imposed by enactment of the law. As regards the Supreme Court's observations, he said the party would react only after studying the full judgment.

In its judgment delivered on Monday but reported only on Wednesday, the Supreme Court observed: "It is a matter of regret that Article 44 of the Constitution has not been given effect to. Parliament is still to step in for framing a common civil code in the country. A common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing the contradictions based on ideologies."

"There is no necessary connection between religious and personal law in a civilised society." the three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare affirmed while striking down as unconstitutional Section 118 of the Indian Succession Act saying it discriminated against Christians by imposing restrictions on their donation by will property for religious and charitable purpose.

The other two Judges of the Bench, Justice S B Sinha and Justice AR Lakshmanan, in their separate judgements, concurred with the Chief Justice's judgement striking down the section and indicating the desirability of a common civil code.

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