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Tamil Nadu forms committee to review personal laws
The move comes amid the BJP-ruled Centre envisioning a Uniform Civil Code, which would replace religion-based marriage and inheritance laws.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Tamil Nadu government has become the first non-BJP-ruled state to form a constitutional committee to examine personal laws.
The move comes amid the BJP-ruled Centre envisioning a Uniform Civil Code, which would replace religion-based marriage and inheritance laws.
The committee has been given terms of reference on ten aspects for submitting the report.
They are: the conflict between personal laws and fundamental rights in the Constitution, making the personal laws gender just, justifying social evils as ‘religious customs, codification of all personal laws for removing ambiguity in their interpretation and application, reforming secular personal laws like Special Marriage Act, 1954, protecting couples having inter-religion or inter-caste marriages, sensitising society on the codification of personal laws with best practice evolved in those personal laws, reforming personal laws/family laws in states exempted under the sixth schedule of the Constitution, aligning personal laws with the International Conventions to which India is a signatory and review of different personal laws in the light of provisions of Constitution.
This move comes after Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi identified the subject “Review of Personal Laws” for a detailed examination.
To have a wider consultation on the matter, the Parliamentary standing committee on personnel public grievances, law and justice, chaired by Sushi Modi, invited memoranda containing views and suggestions from stakeholders.
On October 28, the Tamil Nadu law department issued a government order to form a committee to offer its suggestions on personal laws to help the state government formulate its views to be sent to the Parliamentary standing committee.
Tamil Nadu’s four-member panel is led by a retired justice of the Madras high court, M Sathyanarayanan as the chairperson, with the three other members being senior advocate Om Prakash and advocates E Prabu and Abdul Mubeen.
“The topic is vast. We have to go through several court judgements and acts of the state and central governments,” said retired justice Sathyanarayanan.
“The parliamentary committee has asked for the suggestions to be submitted within 21 days. The state government has requested us to submit our report at the earliest.”
The DMK has made a clear distinction between personal laws and a uniform civil code. “We are against a uniform civil code,” said senior advocate and member of the Parliamentary standing committee, P Wilson.
“We wanted inputs from stakeholders on whether existing personal laws should be modified. There is no objective leading towards a uniform civil code. The DMK is against it.”
