Northeast And Tribals Should Be Exempted From UCC: Parliamentary Panel Chief Sushil Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament and the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice, Sushil Kumar Modi said that the tribal population in the Northeast and other parts of the country must be kept away from the Unifrom Civil Code that has received flak from the Opposition leaders and a few BJP politicians. Modi mentioned on Monday during a panel meeting on UCC that Northeast India, which is governed under the provisions of Article 371, and the tribal areas, falling under the Schedule, should be exempted from the law. Several opposition leaders and along with a few BJP leaders have opposed the implementation of the UCC.

This comes a week after Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma expressed his mind on the UCC implementation saying that the customs and rituals of his state cannot be dismissed and force everyone to follow a new rule.

The officials of the law ministry and the Law Commission of India were asked to join this House panel. The other members of the panel on UCC said that the parties would be allowed to send their formal response on the issue after the central government sends a draft of the proposal. 

According to the report, the Congress MPs have questioned if the implementation of UCC will end up violating the freedom of religion in the country. It is said that Senior advocate and Congress MP Vivek Tankha cited that according to the information received about UCC so far, marriage comes under personal laws that might be up for change if UCC is implemented. Tankha pointed out that during the Same-sex Marriage hearing in the Supreme Court was going on, the government argued that marriage is inherently connected with one's religion, so UCC's implementation of marriage laws could also affect the religious sentiments of the citizen.

In two separate written statements submitted by Tankha and DMK MP P Wilson, they asked the member-secretary of the Law Commission K Biswal why were they open for public comments on this matter when the previous Law Commission in 2018 had reportedly described UCC as 'neither necessary nor desirable'.

To that the BJP representative Mahesh Jethmalani argued that it was always considered imperative during the Constituent Assembly debates.

Meanwhile others on the contrary reportedly mentioned that participating in the laws laid by UCC should be a voluntary option, adding that BR Ambedkar also believed in the same.

According to the reports, the consultation process was conducted by the officials of the law ministry who explained the topic in a PowerPoint presentation. They have also informed the media that after a public notice on June 13 allowing suggestions to come in, the ministry received 19 lakh responses so far and the exercise will be continuing till July 13.

The House panel which consisted of members from different opposition parties as well, did not have any representation from Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party. 17 out of the 31 members attended the panel discussion.