Kerala assembly unanimously passes resolution against UCC

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution against the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country, claiming that the Centre’s hasty and unilateral” move to impose the law without consensus would “do away with the secular character of the Constitution”.

The resolution stated that the Centre should keep away from any move on matters that would impact the people of the country. It urged the central government to refrain from taking blatant moves “until a consensus on issues affecting our people is arrived at through discussions with various religious groups”.

The resolution, presented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was backed by all parties from the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF).

“The idea of a Uniform Civil Code in the Constitution is not the same as that of the version of the UCC of the Sangh Parivar. Their idea of the law is as per the Manusmriti. They had made it very clear early on,” CM Vijayan said while presenting the resolution.

As per the resolution, the Constitution has made reference to the UCC only in the Directive Principles of State Policy. “The directive principles of Article 44 of the Constitution cannot be mandated to be enforced even by the judiciary. It should be realised that the architects of the Constitution had adopted that stand after much deliberation,” it said.

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Both the CPI(M) and Congress have already conducted a series of seminars in many parts of the state in protest against implementing the UCC.

Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favours, the implementation of UCC, it doesn’t have representation in the state assembly.

Even though there is much talk around UCC, no draft of the proposed law has been presented so far.

The expert panel formed by the Uttarakhand government last year has still not come up with a draft before the state government even though chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had said in June that it would be done within a fortnight.

The Law Commission of India had sought suggestions for the proposed law till July 28, and claims to have received over 3 lakh responses.

Strongly supporting the implementation of uniform civil laws across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a Bhopal meeting that the country cannot be run with “two laws” when the Constitution espouses equality for all.

Article 44 of the Constitution states that the State shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India.

The resolution stated that the UCC refers only to the Directive Principles of the Constitution and its implementation is not mandatory.

“The Constitution refers to Uniform Civil Code only in its Directive Principles. It is pertinent to note that the Uniform Civil Code was limited to Directive Principles. Implementation of Directive Principles is not mandatory. The court may order to enforce Fundamental rights. But the Directive Principles of Article 44 of the Constitution cannot be enforced even by courts. It is essential to understand how much thought the founders of the Constitution had put in while arriving at such a decision,” it read.

It further mentioned that Dr BR Ambedkar had advocated for UCC but never pressed for one.

“Ambedkar, who advocated Parliament passing the Uniform Civil Code by respecting citizens’ rights to choose their laws, never pressed for one. So, it’s very clear that he was pointing towards a possibility. Common Civil Law was restricted to the scope of the Directive Principle of State Policy due to this opposition,” the resolution read.

UCC is a common set of laws pertaining to marriage, inheritance, adoption, and other matters that are not based on religion. Kerala is the first state in the country to pass such a resolution in its assembly against the proposed law.

The state assembly was also the first legislative body in India to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and farm laws passed by the Union government.

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