India is the land of diverse cultures and religions so as their religion-based personal laws. The idea to bring the Uniform Civil Code in the country would be an ideal safeguard to bring equality among the people irrespective of religion or birth as stated the concept of equality before the law in Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
The movement to bring Uniform Civil Code was back-traced over 180 years ago when the report of the Second Law Commission of 1835 was kept on the table and the epoch-making issue was debated. In 2019, Bhartiya Janta Party mentioned in their manifesto Sankalp Patra to draft a separate code to deal with the personal laws in India.
Uniform Civil Code points out to the single governing law of the country, applicable to all the citizens of India deliberated to replace the system of fragmented personal laws of the country in their personal matters such as divorce, marriage, inheritance and adoption Uniform Civil Code is defined in the Part IV of the Constitution of India under Article 44 of Directive Principles of State Policy as –
“State shall endeavor to provide for its citizens a uniform civil code (UCC) throughout the territory of India.”
Though it is not accepted in the country wholly it was incorporated by Dr. B R Ambedkar,when the constitution of India was framed as it would be fulfilled when the nation would be ready to accept it. The main object to exercise the Uniform Civil Code is to bring consistency and eradicate gender inequality when it comes to different personal laws.
The demand for making one code for the country was driven in the Supreme Court in 1985 in the case of Mohd. Ahmed Khan vs. Shah Bano and Sarla Mudgal vs. Union of India where the Supreme Court of the country has also advocated to execute Uniform Civil Code. Goa is the only state of the country which is governed by the Uniform Civil Code (Goa family law) and the Special Marriage Act 1954 which allow the citizen to have a civil marriage outside the realm of any specific religious personal law.
Personal status of a person, rights related to the acquisition or inheriting the property, marriage, divorce and adoption of the child are the concentric point which is included by the common civil code.
But in the country, there are various communities that are against this secular uniform civil code such as Muslims. Christians. Therefore, the people who are the opponents of this law are called as ‘Secularists’ and who favors this secular law is known as ‘communalists’
Till now date Uniform Civil Code has not yet implemented but on a serious note, there is huge need of common civil code because it will change the whole scenario and doings of the society. It can help us to stand against secularization. Secularism promotes the idea of co-existence. But secularization disregards religion as a whole which is much similar to atheism. The problem is secularization. It is the process of converting something from religious to secular use. It’s time to make ourselves ready for the future. This time we have to stop them to repeat the same thing.
If a common civil code is enacted and enforced, it would help and accelerate national integration, overlapping of provisions of different personal law could be avoided, case related to different personal law would decrease, sense of oneness and the national spirit would rise and the country would emerge with new force and power to face all odds finally defeating the communal and the diversionist forces.
There can’t be gender equality till India adopts UCC which protects the rights of women. UCC should respect all the traditional values of all religions with modern times in peace and harmony. India’s UCC should not subsume the practices of various minorities and make another Gentoo code. Separation of politics and recognition of rights for women should be given utmost importance and should be far away from Hindu majority. UCC means one country, one law this law shouldn’t hamper the secularism, unity and diversity among public and people. UCC stands against social crusades like gender inequality, misogyny and it can put an end towards religious extremism. Do we really think that Hindu personal laws are gender-equal? UCC must be made without referring to the Hindu code or Christian code or Muslim laws or Parsi code. It should be independently infused with secularism and secular code.
India being a land of so much diversity needs to bring a common civil code. Every single person has faith in different religions. Uniform Civil Code will ensure a balance between the protection of fundamental rights and religious beliefs of the individual. It doesn’t ask to leave customs but favors in making common personal law, keeping in mind every single religion and their beliefs along with customs. Consequently, this will bring all communities into one common platform. Jawaharlal Nehru himself said in an interview with Taya Zenkin that his greatest achievement in life was ensuring equal rights to Hindu sisters and greatest regret was that he couldn’t do the same to his Muslim sisters. It is not a political agenda but a part of our constitution and our right.
REFERENCES:
[1] Business Standard, What is the Uniform Civil Code, https://www.business-standard.com/about/what-is-uniform-civil-code.
[2] J.N. Pandey,Constitutional Law of India, Central Law Agency.
[3] Chitra Loungani, Legal Service India, Uniform Civil Code in Goa.
[4] Uniform Civil Code by 2020? Modi government likely to table UCC Bill in Parliament in Dec 2019, Times Now Bureau.
[5] Krishna Rajagopal,Government has failed to bring in Uniform Civil Code, says Supreme Court, The Hindu.
