The Hindu : National : Piecemeal amendments to Goan civil code opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 22, 2005

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National

Piecemeal amendments to Goan civil code opposed

Special Correspondent

PANAJI: The move of the State Government to go in for piecemeal amendments of the Portuguese Civil Code (PCC), which is in operation in the State, has been opposed by the Goa Legislators' Forum (GLF).

The GLF, representing past and present legislators as also some judges and lawyers, has objected to such changes, particularly to the provisions of the Personal Law applicable to all communities.

Mr. Herculan Dourado, secretary of the GLF and former MLA, told The Hindu on Wednesday that "the part by part amendment of the Code amounts to splitting of the Code and some personal laws, and at the recently held seminar on the issue, lawyers, judges and former legislators expressed fears that it could damage the unity and uniformity of the Code. We would not like that individual aspects of the Code are taken out for amendment."

The issue surfaced following the invitation for public objections by the Select Committee of the Assembly which was considering changes to three important parts of the PCC, namely, Succession, Inventory and Notary proceedings.

As an erstwhile Portuguese colony, Goa continues to have the PCC and some of its provisions are progressive and gender-friendly. The equal division of wealth, property and income between spouses is applicable to all communities. The PCC is not entirely free of shortcomings. The law in its original form is not very friendly to women who cannot bear children in a marriage.

However, one of the biggest problems has been that the State has very few senior lawyers and judges who know the Portuguese language and as such the PCC in the original form.

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