Reports claiming UCC not possible are false: Law Commission

Refuting news reports which claimed that Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is not possible in India, the Law Commission of India (LCI) has clarified that the reports are biased and published with ulterior motives.

According to the press release issued by LCI, “The reports are biased and published with ulterior motives. It has come to the notice of the Law Commission of India that certain sections of the media across the country are coming out with reports attributed to the Hon’ble Chairman of the Commission that implementation of UCC in India is constitutionally untenable and that the Code is not even an option.”

As per recent reports, the LCI Chairman Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan said that the UCC is not possible and not even an option.

“UCC is not possible. We will try to recommend religion-wise amendments in family laws. It would be the piecemeal way to suggest what are the changes required in Hindu law, Muslim law, Christian law, Parsi law, etc. We will target the problems of each religion and deal with them accordingly. We cannot take the whole UCC, as we cannot go outside the constitution,” the report claimed Balbir Singh Chauhan as saying.

In October 2016, LCI sought public views on the subject to revise and reform family laws, saying the aim is to address social injustice rather than to do away with the plurality of laws.

Article 44 of the Constitution of India states that the state shall endeavor to secure for the citizens, a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

In October 2015, stressing the need of UCC, the Supreme Court said, “This cannot be accepted; otherwise every religion will say it has a right to decide various issues as a matter of its personal law. We don’t agree with this at all. It has to be done through a decree of a court.”

Goa is the only state in India which has a common civil code.