wfn.org | National Council of Churches in India on Civil Code

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Press Release

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) has been noncommittal in
its stand on the Uniform Civil Code as brought up by the Supreme Court in
its Historic Judgment on the 23rd July, 2003.

The NCCI, while welcoming the judgment redressing the anomaly filled by one
Fr. John Vallamattom about the discrimination faced by Christians in the
case of succession Act, section 118, which was clearly discriminatory
against the Christians, it is keen to know how exactly will the government
deal with this complex issue.  It has to be clarified here that the
discrimination in the old succession act was not at all part of Christian
Personal law as reported in some news papers today.

The NCCI is of the opinion that while going for such an exercise the
Government should take all the Communities into Confidence so that the
religious sentiments of people of any faith or no faith are not hurt.  While
this is a difficult task it can be achieved through dialogue and by arriving
at a consensus.

Various communities have various laws regarding personal life of the
members.  These laws are the basic marks of their identity.  India is a
mosaic of communities.	It is as somebody has said A Multi National
community. There are bewildering diversities of ethnic, social and religious
origin.  How can we contain all these diversities?  Dose it mean to be made
uniform is to loose all the diversities and to become stereotyped?  We can
not envisage a Monolithic Society, in India whether the Hindus or the
Muslims or the Christians.

For different religions, symbols carry different meaning to their members.
Will it be a problem for a Sikh to carry a Kirpan in public places?  Would
the Government for example consider abortion as a legitimate mean of
population control, as its huge problem in India?

Thus ultimately the question that the NCCI would like to clarify is as to
what exactly is meant by the Uniform Civil Code and in which area of the
societal life is it to be applied?  Are religious customs to be exempted?
Are women and children to be given special privileges?	How about the SC /
ST groups which so far have been enjoying reservation in jobs?

A uniform code should not be forced upon the people of India who belong to
different sects within a religion.  Now there is no common law for all the
Hindus all the Muslims and all the Christians.	Each community is now
apprehensive that their freedom will be curtailed.  If the government is
serious about it, it should take into confidence the people belonging to the
different communities and initiate a study process.  It may take time, but
then it is worth the time and energy spent.

It must be added here that though at present there is no law that adversely
affects the Christian Community, all the same, when no one speaks about the
Universal Civil Code, the Christian Community has in mind the welfare of all
the citizens of this Country.

Rev. Dr. Ipe Joseph
General Secretary - NCCI
news@nccindia.org

Nagpur, July 24, 2003

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News letter : N C C India