Chennai: Former Union Law Minister and senior Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani on September 6 came out strongly against the proposal to have a common civil code.

"The need of the hour was uniform dispensation of justice to all sections of the people and not a common civil code," he said while delivering a lecture on the issue organised by the Palkhiwala Foundation.

"If the question is whether we should enact a common civil code, the answer is a firm No," he said, adding that what the country needed was uniform dispensation of justice and removal of the unjust elements in the legal system.

He said the thinking by those who advocated a common civil code that it would help national integration was wrong.

On the other hand it would only lead to national disintegration, he said.

Jethmalani said opposition per se to common civil code by Muslims were also baseless. But a common civil code could not be brought about without mobilising opinion of all religious groups.

He said the Indian judiciary was comparatively strong vis-a-vis other institutions, and added that judiciary in India was "clean and better."

PTI