There will not be any immediate focus on implementing the uniform civil code (UCC). Last evening, some media reports had wrongly quoted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who was cited as having said time has come for UCC.
Hours after the Jam Janmabhoomi site was given to Hindus by the Supreme Court for construction of a Ram Mandir, media houses had reported that union defence minister Rajnath Singh said that time has come for the Uniform Civil Code. He was quoted as having said “aa gaya samay” (time has come) when reporters asked him about UCC. However, news agency ANI that had reported has now deleted the story and tweet. OpIndia regrets having reported the misinformation.
Uniform Civil Code refers to common personal law for all the communities, as opposed to the current situation where every community has their own personal law. Four separate petitions have been filed at the Delhi Court seeking implementation of UCC, and the court will hear the petitions on 15th November. The petitions are seeking farming of a uniform civil court as provided under Article 44 of the constitution, to promote national integration as well as gender justice, equality and dignity of women.
The fist plea seeking UCC was filed by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in May 2019. After that, another petition was filed by a lawyer for the constitution of a judicial commission or a high-level committee to prepare a UCC. The third petition was filed by Firoz Bakht Ahmed, the chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the grandnephew of first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, while the fourth petition was filed by social activist Amber Zaidi, who in her petition has said that the country urgently needs a UCC.
The High Court has clubbed all four petitions and will hear them together.
Read: Filing PILs for the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code is a bad idea, here’s why
Talking about the Ram Janmabhoomi verdict, Rajnath Singh said that this is a landmark judgement. “I think this will strengthen that the feeling of ‘Sarv Dharma Sambhav’ and relations among people will be better. I appeal people should maintain peace and the verdict should not be taken as a win or loss for anyone,” he said.
In a historic judgement, today the 5-judge bench of Supreme Court headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi handed over the entire Ram Janmabhoomi site of 2.77 acres in Ayodhya for construction of the Ram Mandir. At the same time, the court asked the government to provide 5 acres of land at a prominent place in Ayodhya to the Muslim parties represented by the Sunni Waqf Board. The apex court has asked the central government to formulate a scheme for the same within 3 months, and also asked to form a board of trustees for construction of the temple.
Note: The report has been updated with latest information.
