It is along expected lines that the ruling opposition-less government has decided to oppose application of Uniform Civil Code (UCC); the Forest Conservation Amendment Act (FCA)2023 while giving its assent on women reservation in polls to Urban Local Bodies(ULBs). Of the three, the UCC and FCA have assumed crucial importance in the light of the centre taking these steps ahead. The Centre has made its intention clear on implementing UCC but which has run into rough weather from various states. Critics argue that imposing a single code might undermine the cultural and religious autonomy of minority communities, leading to feelings of alienation and marginalisation. On September 12, the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly at its second session adopted a unanimous resolution reaffirming the constitutional guarantee to Nagaland over matters involving religious and customary practices etc and unanimously resolved for exemption from the proposed enactment of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in its application to the State of Nagaland. When the Constitution was being written, many of its framers made the commonsensical point that if India was going to be a secular state, where matters of governance would be kept separate from religion, then there should be one law for all citizens. Thus was born the concept of Uniform Civil Code(UCC) a view shared by both BR Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru. However, not everyone was on board and for varying reasons. Faced with these arguments, Nehru and Ambedkar accepted that India would have one criminal code but on personal matters (marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, etc.) there would be many religious laws. The need for a UCC was put into the Constitution\u2019s Directive Principles of State Policy, which are not binding. The house also unanimously passed a resolution for the new Nagaland Municipal Act 2023 to enable holding of Urban Local Body(ULB) polls with 33% women reservation. The Act had been amended several times- in 2006,2011 and 2016. Since 2009 no polls to ULBs were held owing to the issue of tax and women reservation. The chief minister in his speech said the Supreme Court had made known that the personal laws of Nagaland and the special status under Article 371(A) were not being touched in any manner. He reminded that the Supreme Court had given \u201cone last of the last opportunity to Nagaland to abide by its directions and that the case was next listed on September 26, 2023. Another critical issue is the Forest (Conservation) Act 2023 which has, like the UCC, attracted strong objections and criticisms from states and NGOs. The leader of the house and chief minister Neiphiu Rio had remarked that the Act was enacted by the government of India with a view to keep a check on rampant diversion of Forest lands by the states for various purposes thereby impacting ecological. It may be noted that the Supreme Court in the famous TN Godavarman judgement of 1996 had given these areas protection of the forest (conservation) act as \u201cdeemed forests\u201d. That has now been removed through the amendment and huge tracts of forests in India will now be open to commercial plunder. The objection to FCA will be a bulwark against such central acts that seek to undermine the traditional ownership of land and its resources which are protected under Article 371A of the constitution of India for Nagaland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is along expected lines that the ruling opposition-less government has decided to oppose application of Uniform Civil Code (UCC); the Forest Conservation Amendment Act (FCA)2023 while giving its assent on women reservation in polls to Urban Local Bodies(ULBs). Of the three, the UCC and FCA have assumed crucial importance in the light of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}