The Uniform Civil Code : Elucidating The Laws

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Varun Srivastav gives an overview of the Uniform Civil Code and emphasizes upon the significance of its implementation in India, which will then do away with the instances of discrimination against women under personal laws and other such irregularities.

INTRODUCTION

From oration of the implementation of Uniform Civil Code as a moral duty of the State, till boycotting the same on the grounds of ‘a harsh impact on secularism’ and a fresh hype on ‘triple talaq’ in Islamic marriages, a wave of ‘one nation one law’ influential on every religion is swaying today.  Even, the history of Indian Constitution rests in favor of the one nation – one law policy, which unfortunately was and id still being dragged under tarnished diplomacy of politicians through years. Citing words from the drafter of the Indian Constitution, Bhim Rao Ambedkar

“I personally do not understand why religion should be given this vast, expansive jurisdiction so as to cover the whole of life and to prevent the legislature from encroaching upon the field. After all, what are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequalities, discrimination and other things which conflict with our fundamental rights.”

When the British came to India, they encountered extremely uneven social order in a state of unrest. The Brits quickly apprehended that whatever on earth you do; never lay a hand on the religious values of the populace. Accordingly, the Brits permitted different personal laws for diverse population. Parsis, Christians, Muslims and Hindus got their edition of civil code that controlled marriages, inheritance, divorce, etc. The Hindu code was based on the ‘Anglo Hindu Law’ arranged by British academicians after studying the Hindu scriptures.

The various Personal laws in India are :

1. Hindu Marriage Act;

2. Muslim Personal Law;

3. Christian Marriage Act;

4. Parsi Marriage Act;

The purpose of putting up the Uniform Civil Code is to substitute all personal laws of every religion into a single law, which would be pertinent to all the individuals irrespective of their religions. In Article 44 of Indian Constitution, our naissance fathers wrote their vision of bringing entirety of India under a common civil code and putting an end to a mishmash of religious laws.

 

THE SHAH BANO CASE, 1985 : A SIGNIFICANT RULING

In 1985, The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Shah Bano, who had moved the apex court looking for maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal procedure after, her husband divorced her. The then Chief Justice, Y.V. Chandrachud, observed pragmatically that a common civil code would help the foundation of ‘national integration’ by eliminating incongruent loyalties to law. The court intended the Parliament to initiate a structure on uniform civil code.

The Supreme Court, in October 2015. held that there was total perplexity due to a variety of personal laws, and required to know if the government was enthusiastic to put into operation the Uniform Civil Code, It observed:

“What happened to it? Why don’t you frame and implement it?” 

On the other hand, the apex court shortly declined to express Parliament to bring in a Uniform Civil Code while permitting a PIL filed in this regard to be withdrawn.

 

THE INDISPENSABLE REASONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

Uniform civil code is indispensable for our maturity as citizens, and the advancement of our country as in one piece. The paramount, and the most sturdy raison d’être to get this up and running is be the fact, that, we get liberation from all gender discriminating laws, and send a gust to the patriarchal personality of our society. This can only be accomplished if our politicians commit to bring together our society, and close the eyes to the threats by secessionist forces, supersede hard facing and put into operation the Uniform Civil Code with full patronage of judicial system. It won’t only impinge on one group of people, but on all the people breathing in the country. The idea that Muslim law is directly influenced is true. But the perception that fundamentalists hold bend over the majority of Muslims as one that is buoyant by the political parties for their benefits is, however ,unsubstantiated.

The reasons of implementing UCC are :

(a) The Constitution under Article 44 emphasizes upon it.

(b) Laws pertinent with respect to religiosity are extremely prejudiced and prone to be browbeaten by people who would abuse.

(c) Religiously motivated laws are almost all bigoted to women.

(d) Gives other popular religion members one less thing to hate-rant about.

(e) Diminishes the saddle (legal) of being a minority.

(f) Modernize the legal system.

(g) The laws of our land are not made to gratify any particular faith.

The Uniform Civil Code sets the precedent for true equality and consensus. Most of the bigoted events will have to go, for instance polygamy and the ‘triple talaq system’. As far as religion- laws pertaining to the Hindus go in the case of succession, they will have to go out under the civil code. If certain laws are found to be Hindus centric or majority, they would be crumbled as well. 

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