Step initiated by HC regarding the framing of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

WE DEMAND ONE NATION ONE LAW, UNIFORM CIVIL CODE – ARTICLE 44 OF OUR CONSTITUTION

Author: Ms. Gayatri sahu, ITM University, Raipur.

The UCC is not an invention of ruling government it was proposed in the original constitution of the India and was debated in the parliament in 1949 and later between 1951  and 1954 even though prime minister Nehru was personally in support of the bill he was unable to convince the other members, thus it was agreed to place the responsibility of uniform civil code on the state by including it in directive principle of state policy .this ended the first serious debate of the uniform civil code and gave birth to various laws and law boards to created the respective customs and their practices for their community to abide by.

The Judicial reminders began in 1985 in the case of Shah Bano,Uniform civil code  is the ongoing point of debate , India right now has no uniform civil code except Goa, Goa is the only Indian state  to have a uniform civil code in India, people have different laws in each major community, India is a diverse country and it consists of various communities that derived their personal laws on their beliefs and Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in his plea contended that government has failed to put in place a uniform civil code, as provided under Article 44 of the Constitution. Supreme court of India has indicated the need for the law was to recommend all citizens, the supreme court through its ruling in different cases has repeatedly given a message that the personal laws are not final.

In a country that tries itself on being the world’s largest democracy and where debates on secularism occupy the center – state every other day for a woman of that country still files petitions seeking maintenance after being divorced in a very abrupt way like taking divorce  by Skype, WhatsApp or other social media it is really very shameful, possibly the idea of different personal laws was feasible before but given the current scenario and the alarming rise in gender crimes, the UCC will unite the society against evil’s like gender inequality and misogyny , the entire world is seen a rise in religious extremism and India can set a classic example of how a diverse nation can stand united, the youth of our country must come together to redefine secularism , we are quite strong on issues like net neutrality and the ucc too deserves similar enthusiastic treatment

Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in his petition claimed that the verity spirit of article 44(Right To Equality), 15(Right Against Discrimination Guaranteed), and 21(Right to Life and Liberty) couldn’t be secured while not implementing a UCC. He has additionally sought-after a direction to the Law Commission of  nation “to draft a standardized Civil Code within the spirit of Article 44 of the Constitution inside 3 months whereas considering the simplest practices of all religions and sects, civil laws of developed countries and international conventions” and sought to publish it on the website for at least 60 days so that all the concerned citizens of our nation are expected to engage and provide their opinions as well as suggestions for the revision and reformation of family laws in India.

The Court currently listed the matter for hearing on the month of July 08, 2019

UCC for Citizens

Article 44 of the Constitution of India, under the Directive Principle of State Policy, provides for a “uniform civil code”. It read as follows:

Article 44. Uniform Civil Code for Citizens. –The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India

DPSP means the directive principles of state policy under article 44 envisages to have uniform civil code in the country.

Whenever UCC has mentioned the case that continues to be is that the Shah Bano case. The Supreme Court had an extremely justly given the decision that Shah Bano was entitled to maintenance under Section 125 of CrPc. But, however subject to the growing protests from the Muslim community, this decision had to be struck down.

However, the depressing half is that the ongoing debate on UCC has got trapped in politics, rather than reaching out to a consensus, it’ becomes a blame game entertained by different political parties.

As determined by the Supreme court in Sarla Mudgal’s case, the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code is imperative for the protection of the burdened and therefore the helpless women, who are suffering only and only in the name of religion. There is no logical connection between religion and personal law in a civilized society.  Years after the Shah Bano case, the case that came to the image was the Shayara Banu case. In 2015, she was divorced by her husband who gave her triple talaq for no such excusable reasons. She was tortured unrelentingly and in her entire married life tolerated this torture simply because of the worry of being “triple talaq d” by her husband. However, ultimately her worry came true.

In 1954, Once the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal  Nehru was asked on why UCC hasn’t been enforced yet, he replied that the time isn’t ripe to create it come back to force. It’s rather attention-grabbing to notice that nowadays even after 72 years of independence the time does not seem to be ripe. However long are we tend to wait for such varied Shah Banos or Saira Banu’s or Sarla Mudgal’s to suffer????

Therefore, the time has arrived that we tend to adopt one nation one statute policy. If the identical law of contract or torts applies to a Hindu or Muslim, why not the identical law of marriage?

The time has come for us to require in-depth take a look at the Indian state, Goa Family Law derived from the Portuguese Civil Procedure Code and see if it may be a helpful place to begin for an amendment and transferral in UCC. To add up in last, Uniform Civil Code is the need of the hour.  For citizens belonging to different religions and denominations, it’s imperative that for promotion of national unity and solidarity a unified code is an absolute necessity on that there may be no compromise.