Law Commission runs into 2 legal hurdles on Uniform Civil Code

NEW DELHI: Tasked to examine the feasibility and desirability of a uniform civil code, the Law Commission has come across two major legal issues - the 80-year-old Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act and a Bombay high court judgment that gave Muslims the freedom to opt for the 1937 Act's provisions which govern marriage rules, including polygamy. The ruling was delivered by Justice M C Chagla who was the first Indian chief justice of the Bombay HC. Law Commission

chairman Justice BS Chauhan said the panel needed to consult a wide cross-section of people, including jurists, to evaluate the relevance of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 and the Bombay HC judgment upholding the validity of the Act's provisions on Muslim personal law. Speaking to TOI, Chauhan said all these matters were before the commission which would take a considered view after reviewing them.Whether an all-party meeting would be convened on the issue has not yet been discussed, he said. "The commission will look into what has been the effect of Section 3 (of the 1937 Act) on Section 2 (application of personal law to Muslims) and how many people have availed of the benefits of Section 2 in writing," Chauhan said.