Uniform Civil Code: What kicked up the issue and why are some opposed to it

All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will start a nation-wide signature campaign from Friday, amid the row over the practice of "triple talaq", among Muslims against the central government affidavit in the Supreme Court on the matter, media reports said.

The topic of triple talaq and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) came back to prominence because of the Shayara Bano case, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Bano's petition in March this year. The Centre got involved too when the apex court sought its response on the matter. Further, in April this year the AIMPLB decided to challenge Bano's petition in the court, with the court agreeing to hear their argument. 

Petitioner Bano challenged the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq and 'nikah halala'.

The other even that brought the topics into focus was the Centre's affidavit filed in the Supreme Court regarding the practices of triple talaq, nikaah halaal and polygamy. 

What does the current govt's affidavit say?

The Union government told the Supreme Court on October 7 that 'triple talaq', 'nikaah halaal' and polygamy, as practised by the Muslims in India, were not "integral to the practices of Islam or essential religious practices".

"The fact that Muslim countries where Islam is the state religion have undergone extensive reforms goes to establish that the practice in question cannot be regarded as integral to the practices of Islam or essential religious practices," argued the government in its affidavit filed on the same day.

The practices in question

'Talaq-e-bidat' is a Muslim man divorcing his wife by pronouncing more than one talaq in a single 'tuhr' (the period between two menstruations), or in a 'tuhr' after coitus, or pronouncing an irrevocable instantaneous divorce at one go (unilateral triple-talaq). 

'Nikah halala' is another practice ostensibly based on the Quran. Bano's plea describes it as: "Further, once a woman has been divorced, her husband is not permitted take her back as his wife even if he had pronounced talaq under influence of any intoxicant, unless the woman undergoes nikah halala which involves her marriage with another man who subsequently divorces her so that her previous husband can re-marry her."

What is the Uniform Civil Code

Part IV of the Indian Constitution lists out the Directive Principles of State Policy, under which, in Article 44, the UCC is mentioned. 

The Article states: "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a UCC throughout the territory of India."

In essence, the UCC would replace personal laws which are enforced in India, based on scriptures and customs of major religious communities, with a common set of laws applying to every citizen equally. These laws would deal with issues pertaining to marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance.

Who opposes it and why

Given the background in which the issue has resurfaces, Muslim religious and social bodies have primarily opposed any move towards the implementation of a UCC. 

The AIMPLB on Thursday rejected the Law Commission's questionnaire on the UCC and decided to boycott it.

The Law Commission, last week, sought public opinion on the exercise of reforming family laws of all religions. The commission has reportedly appealed to members of religious, minority and social groups, non-government organisations, to present their views through a questionnaire on a range of issues, including the practice of triple talaq, the right to property for a woman citizen and polygamy.

"Uniform Civil Code is divisive and will lead to social unrest," said the AIMPLB General Secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani.

"It is against the spirit of the Constitution, which safeguards the right of citizens to practice their culture and religion," he added.

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind President Maulana Arshad Madni, who was also at the briefing said, "The Muslim Personal Law is based on Quran and Hadith and we cannot alter it," adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to "impose dictatorship in the name of democracy".

The reasons for opposition stretch from orthodoxy to the fear that a UCC would be in favour of Hindu practices and dilute the identity of other religious groups. 

While referring to Friday's signature campaign, senior AIMPLB member Khalid Rasheed Farangimahli, according to media reports, said, "The affidavit filed by the central government on the matter of triple talaq is a direct infringement on the Shariat and a nation-wide signature campaign will start from Friday on this matter."

Further, aside from any move to directly bring in a UCC, any move to discontinue the practice of triple talaq is also seen as a ploy to bring in the code from the backdoor. 

"Union government can hold a vote on the issue of triple talaq... Muslims will not tolerate any interference in the Muslim Personal Law," AIMPLB member Zafaryab Jilani said on Monday.

"The move of banning triple talaq is a conspiracy to impose a Uniform Civil Code," he alleged.

Political parties, from the Opposition, have also expressed strong views against any move to introduce a UCC. 

Congress on Thursday said its implementation would be impossible, while other Opposition parties, like the JD(U), accused the BJP-led central government of trying to polarise the people ahead of Assembly polls in several states. Further, Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi said that bringing the UCC would "kill" the diversity and plurality of India.

One of the prevailing fears associated with the UCC is that its implementation is a conspiracy aimed at marginalising minority communities and imposing Hindu Personal Law on all citizens of the country.

"The demand for UCC is a cloak for imposing Hindu Personal Law, which is actually deeply anti-women and has been made progressively more and more pro-women," Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, according to media reports, had said earlier this year. 

Ramesh, however, was not opposed to the UCC itself, unlike his party's current stand of calling it unenforceable. 

"The demand for UCC is a cloak for imposing Hindu Personal Law, which is actually deeply anti-women and has been made progressively more and more pro-women," the former Union minister had told a news agency.

It isn't just large minority groups which are apprehensive about the UCC. 

The Eastern Mirror reported that the Nagaland Bar Association has warned that the UCC would "spell trouble" for the culture of the Naga people.

"It will cause social disorder," the association stated, according to the report, in a copy of a letter addressed to the Prime Minister Modi on Thursday.

"If (a) Uniform Civil Code is introduced covering the entire country, it shall cause so much hardship and social disorder to the Nagas as the personal and social life of the Nagas are quite distinct from the rest of people in the country,’ the representation stated.