Indian Army cancels seminar on Uniform Civil Code in Kashmir citing election conduct rules

The Indian Army on Saturday cancelled a seminar it had organised on the Uniform Civil Code at Kashmir University on Tuesday, citing the implementation of the Mode Code of Conduct ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission that political parties and governments are mandated to follow while campaigning.

The Uniform Civil Code, an ideological plank of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, is a proposed common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups – except in Uttarakhand and Goa – are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

The Army’s seminar, Navigating Legal Frontiers: Understanding Indian Penal Code 2023 and the Quest for Uniform Civil Code, was to host Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court N Kotiswar Singh as its chief guest. Jammu and Kashmir’s Law Secretary Achal Sethi was listed as a speaker.

The topics that were to be discussed at the seminar included the “challenges and benefits of moving from a system of diverse personal laws to a uniform legal code”, “how a Uniform Civil Code aligns with the principles of secularism”, “how Uniform Civil Code...

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