Muslim Personal Law barbaric, unjust, outdated, says Markandey Katju

The Muslim Personal Law is "barbaric, unjust, backward and outdated", Markandey Katju said on Tuesday.

The press council of India chairman and former retired Supreme Court judge made the remark while disapproving 'triple talaq' for divorce of Muslim women and demanding the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

"Triple talaq is bad in law and I disapprove it. Every modern society has single law for women and the Uniform Civil Code is necessary to abolish discrimination against Muslim women in the society," he said.

Katju was speaking to women journalists on "women equality and issues confronting judiciary" at the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) here.

Slamming politicians for using religion-based law for political purposes, Katju, known for being outspoken, said he has been a great critic of this law even when he was a sitting judge of the apex court while dealing with divorce cases of Muslim women.

He said despite the fact that Indian has changed from feudal society to modern society following industrialisation, casteism still exists and panchayats take a decision about the legality and the fate of a woman who gets married to a man from a lower caste.

He deprecated the existence of khaap panchayats and said honour killing is an example of feudal society and death penalty is the "desirable punishment" for those involved in honour killings.

Speaking about the Centre's bill to set up a national judicial appointment commission, replacing the existing collegium system for appointment of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court, Katju supported the government's move saying, "If good people man it then, it will function well. There is no constitutional approval to collegium system."

Referring to a remark made by Justice RM Lodha, who retired on April 27 as the CJI, that there was a campaign going on to defame the judiciary, he said even sitting judges should expose corruption.

He also defended former CJI P Sathasivam for his appointment as governor of Kerala saying there was no hard and fast rule for cooling-off period for a retired judge of a high court or the Supreme Court. Several statutes required appointment of retired judges for various tribunals and there is nothing wrong for a judge in accepting such offers as post-retirement job, he said.