Not possible to form opinion on UCC: Nitish to Law Commission

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today shot off a letter to the Law Commission Chairman conveying his government's inability to form an opinion on the Uniform Civil Code in the absence of any specific or concrete information about its contours as also due to lack of consensus among religious groups on it.
The state cabinet had, on January 10, given its nod to the Law Department's rejoinder/opinion on UCC. The government had also refrained from giving its reply to the Law Commission stating that the structure of the questionnaire was forcing it to reply in a specific manner.
"The details of the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) have not been shared so far with the stakeholders for their comments. In the absence of any specific or concrete information about the contours of the UCC proposed by the central government, it will not be possible to form any opinion on the same," Kumar wrote in his letter.

He sent the letter to Law Commission Chairman Justice BS Chauhan in response to the commission seeking the state government's reply/opinion on the UCC.
The Bihar government also expressed its inability in giving its reply to the commission's questionnaire which, it maintained, was framed in a particular manner to seek specific answers.
"It seems that the questions have been framed in such a manner so as to force the respondent to reply in a specific way. These are leading questions with a limited number of choices given as probable answers and thus, denying the respondent enough scope to frame his own independent replies," Kumar wrote in his letter.

Suggesting that the commission should not "hasten" the implementation of the UCC, the chief minister said, "Ours is a nation based on a delicate balance in respect of laws and governing principles for different religions and ethnic groups.

"In any case, imposition of the UCC without forming a consensus among the various religious groups, especially the minorities, will create a situation of social discord and lead to erosion of faith in the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion."
Kumar emphasised on forming consensus among all the stakeholders before the code was implemented.
(REOPENS CAL 5)
Kumar wrote in his letter, "The question that needs to be asked today is whether such a broad consensus exists at the moment in our society...There is hardly any support or demand for a UCC from any other religious group so far."

He cited media reports that all the major religious groups within the Muslim community have unanimously rejected the possibility of a UCC at this point of time.
The country has a pluralistic fabric of society in respect of long-standing religious practices, the Bihar chief minister said, adding that various community laws and specific community-based concepts, which are meant to deal with personal matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, succession, right to property etc., would have to be scrapped before a UCC is brought in.
"No consultation with all the stakeholders, including the state government, has been done on the feasibility of repealing all such laws before the concept of a UCC is implemented. The prevailing environment in the country hardly seems to be ready for that.

"It is desirable that the whole idea of scrapping various personal laws and replacing the same with a UCC is first put to debate in detail in Parliament as well as Legislative Assemblies of the states and other forums in the civil society, before the Centre thinks of going ahead with the formulation of UCC," Kumar wrote in his letter to the Law Commission Chairman.