SHILLONG, MAY 27: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said he cannot take a position on the Uniform Civil Code without examining its draft, while noting that recent UCC laws in Uttarakhand and Assam have exempted tribal laws, easing concerns over Meghalaya’s matrilineal system.
“I have been very clear on UCC on one perspective and that perspective has been that I cannot comment on a UCC if I don’t see the format of the UCC,” Sangma told reporters. He stressed that the specifics of the proposed code are critical.
“UCC is a Universal Civil Code. What does that UCC mean and what are the codes that will be universal, that is what I need to see,” he said.
“At that point in time only word that is there and therefore it could be left to anybody’s imagination to say that the UCC could be like this.” Sangma said developments in other states had provided some reassurance. “Now, we have seen the context of it and how the UCC is coming out in different states, I am slightly more at comfort because if you look at the UCC in Uttarakhand or whether it is in Assam, they are not touching tribal laws,” he said.
The Chief Minister recalled his earlier reservations. “In the beginning when we had looked at the UCC, it was a thought process. So when people asked me about UCC at that point, I said no we cannot have UCC because we are tribals and our tribal laws are different,” he said.
He noted that the exemptions for tribal communities had changed the discussion. “So suddenly now the UCC is coming from Assam and Uttarakhand and they clearly mentioned out here that tribal laws are exempted so obviously it is a different thing then,” Sangma said.
While maintaining that each state’s law must be studied carefully, he said the government would examine the details. “So, when that kind of situation comes in of course we have to study things carefully, we like to see the details of it though it is from a different state and it is their law and they made the law,” he said. “But just from a pure political question that you ask me, that definitely we will read it and examine it.”
Sangma said the primary concern was the protection of Meghalaya’s matrilineal tradition. “At least the basic part that concerns us to some extent was that we were worried that our matrilineal system that is there tomorrow will be changed and a national law will come in that will completely change the way the tribal in our state follows matrilineal system,” he said.
“These are the things that bother us but once we started seeing different laws being passed, we could see they were at least in paper we could see the tribal rights were protected in one way,” he added. “But we will have to see the whole thing before we can make our full comment.”
