Uniform civil code: Nagaland Bar seeks exemption for Nagaland

Says any change to ‘deeply rooted social customs and practices’ would destroy Nagas’ constitutional rights      

Dimapur, April 24 (EMN): The Nagaland Bar Association (NBA) has appealed the Law Commission of India (LCI) to suggest protection of Naga social customs and practices as provided under Article 371 (A) of the Constitution when the commission puts across its recommendation on uniform civil code to the government of India.

An NBA representation to the law commission containing the appeal was made available to the local press on Tuesday. The NBA letter, it stated, was in response to the ‘views and objections’ sought by the commission on the uniform civil code.

“…the Bar is of the serious view that Constitution of India does not envisage sectarian form of government in view of the fact that the Indian sub-continent does not belonged to an homogenous society ((sic). A government democratic in structure, but sectarian in spirit may flog together the heterogeneous societies into homogenous one by codification of civil code uniform for all. However, in such an eventuality, the destruction of the basic structures of the Constitution shall certainly be attracted.

“That in the case of the State of Nagaland, Article 371A incorporated by the Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act, 1962, which among others, safeguards the social customs and practices of the Nagas is an inalienable and Constitutional right. Since the time immemorial, the Nagas professed democratic society as against hierarchical or class society,” the representation read.

In the ‘backdrop of the classless and democratic society professed by the Nagas right from the time immemorial’, the Bar association stated, the people of Nagaland continue to remain ‘well contended’. In the opinion of the NBA ‘any change to these deeply rooted social customs and practices would destroy these inherent and Constitutional rights of the Nagas’.

“Hence, it is the fervent appeal of the legal fraternity in the State of Nagaland to the Law Commission of India, that while dealing with the job of meticulous legal research for uniform civil code for the country, as for the Nagas, the protection of the Naga social customs and practices conferred under Article 371A may be recommended for protection to the Government of India,” it stated.