Paras Pradhan LLB 2nd Years

Uniform Civil Code (A Step Ahead Equality)

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Uniform Civil Code seeks to exchange personal laws supported the scriptures and customs of every major religious community in India with a standard set of rules governing every citizen.

NEED FOR UCC

Different personal laws promote communalism and it results in discrimination at two levels:

  • Between people of different religions.
  • Between the two sexes.

Uniform Civil Code will provide women with the right to equality and justice in courts of law- irrespective of their religion in matters pertaining to marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody of children, inheritance rights, adoption, etc.

The Supreme Court for the primary time directed the Parliament to border a UCC within the year 1985 within the case of Mohammad Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, popularly referred to as the Shah Bano case.

In this case, Shah Bano claimed for maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after she was given triple talaq by him. However, government overturned the Shah Bano case decision by way of Muslim Women (Right to Protection on Divorce) Act, 1986.

The Supreme Court in Shayara Bano case (2017) had declared the practise of Triple Talaq (talaq-e-bidat) as unconstitutional.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

The Second Law Commission, constituted by British Government, which submitted its report in 1835, which stressed the necessity for uniformity in codification of Indian law concerning crimes, evidences and contracts, however, specifically recommended that private laws of Hindus and Muslims should be kept outside such codification.

‘In their Second Report the Commission examined the problems of Lex Loci and codification and came to the conclusion that“what India wants may be a body of substantive civil law, in preparing which the law of England should be used because the basis, but which, once enacted, should be the law of India on the subject it embraced. And such a body of law, prepared as it ought to be with a constant regard to the condition and institutions of India, and character, religions, usages of the population, would, we are convinced, be of great importance thereto country.”

The Commission also recommended that codification shouldn’t reach matters just like the personal laws of the Hindus and Mohammedans which derived their authority from their respective religions.

DISCUSSIONS

B.N. Rau Committee and Codifying Hindu Law This finally led to the fixing in 1941 of the B.N. Rau Committee – officially the Hindu Law Committee –

The B.N. Rau Committee recommended a codified Hindu law, which might give equal rights to women keep with the fashionable trends of society.

LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT

Article 44 of the Constitution of India lists Uniform Civil Code together of the Directive Principles of State Policy. Some parties believes that there can’t be gender equality till such time India adopts a consistent Civil Code, which protects the rights of all women, and therefore the opposition reiterates its stand to draft a consistent Civil Code, drawing upon the simplest traditions and harmonizing them with the fashionable times.”

STATUS OF PERSONAL LAWS IN INDIA

Personal law subjects like marriage, divorce, inheritance come under Concurrent list.

Hindu personal laws have been by and large secularized and modernized by statutory enactments.
The Hindu personal laws (that apply also to the Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists) are codified by the Parliament in 1956 This Code Bill has been split into four parts:

  • The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
  • The Hindu Succession Act, 1956
  • The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
  • The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956

On the opposite hand, Muslim personal laws are still primarily unmodified and traditional in their content and approach.

  • The Sharia law of 1937 governs the personal matters of all Indian Muslims in India.
  • It clearly states that in matters of private disputes, the State shall not interfere and a spiritual authority would pass a declaration supported his interpretations of the Quran and the Hadith.
  • Aside from it, Christians and Jews also are governed by different personal laws.

MERITS OF UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

    1. National Integration:

      A unified code is imperative, both for the protection of the vulnerable sections in Indian society(women and non-secular minorities) and for the promotion of national unity and solidarity.

    2. Simplification of laws:

      There exists numerous personal laws like Hindu code bill, Sharia law, etc. Presence of numerous laws creates confusion, complexity and inconsistencies within the adjudication of private matters, sometimes resulting in delayed justice or no justice. UCC will eliminate this overlapping of laws

    3. Establishing a secular society:

      UCC will de-link law from religion which may be a very desirable objective to realize during a secular and socialist pattern of society. Moreover, it fulfill constitutional mandates under Article 44 of Directive Principles of State Policy.

    4. Gender justice:

      The rights of girls are usually limited under the patriarchal discourse through religious laws. UCC will liberate women from patriarchal domination and provide them with right to equality and liberty. In the future, UCC would cause the defeat of the communal and therefore the divisionism forces.

RECENT NEWS:

Recently, the Supreme Court during a case concerning the question of whether succession and inheritance of a Goan domicile is governed by the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867 or the Indian Succession Act of 1925

CONCLUSION:

In this article, we have seen different perspectives of the Social –political-legal system which somehow responsible for the addition of Article 44 in the Constitution of India.

The Uniform Civil Code is a method of providing justice on the basis of Equality with the maintenance of uniformity, sovereignty in a democratic nation like India.

In order to maintain our significance & purity from grass to the top of the tree level and also in this developing – physical world it is the need of the hour for sustainable development of republic nation


1Law Commission of India. 1958.Fourteenth Report (Reform of Judicial Administration, Ministry of Law, Government of India, September 26, Vol. 1.http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/1-50/Report14Vol1.pdf

Paras Pradhan

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