Ahmedabad: A few Muslim groups have started opposing the state govt’s bid to bring in the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and exhorted people to reject it. The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) on Tuesday called a meeting and launched a campaign to make people aware of the issue and convince them to register their protest against the UCC. It urged people to register their protest through scanning a QR code and by a missed-call campaign.
Addressing mediapersons, the committee’s convener, Mujahid Nafis, said that different laws adequately address the issues of marriage, divorce, inheritance and women’s right to property among Muslims, and there is no need to bring in new provisions to regulate the same. He said, “The exercise of the UCC violates the constitutional rights granted under Articles 25, 26, 28, and 29 of the Indian Constitution, which provide people the freedom to practise their religion.”
Nafis also said, “Our Constitution grants all religious communities and groups the authority to follow their own personal laws and beliefs. Additionally, Article 44 of the Constitution discusses a common civil code for the entire country, raising the question of whether having separate civil codes for different states can truly be considered a common civil code. The way Uttarakhand’s UCC has been formulated, with numerous flaws, seems to impose the laws of one particular religion over all other personal laws, thereby establishing that it is not genuinely a UCC.”
Another group, the Gujarat Muslim Hit Rakshak Samiti, also undertook a campaign to engage community members over this issue and convince them to oppose the UCC.