Why India needs Uniform Civil Code(UCC)?
What is Uniform Civil Code?
UCC is the proposal for a codified personal law that would apply to all the citizens of India and which is a part of the Directive Principle of State policy. Presently Only the Hindu Personal Law is codified whereas the Muslim Law is an uncodified law.
Different personal laws conflict with the Right to equality and to secure gender justice. The Uniform Civil Code is a reformative move and is strengthened by the example of its successful implementation in Goa. The Supreme Court too has repeatedly asserted for implementing Uniform Civil Code as contained in Article 44 of the Directives Principles of State Policy of the Constitution
The History
A series of Hindu Code Bills were passed in 1950s and this made the Hindu Family law a codified law. The Hindu Code Bill was the brainchild of Jawahar Lal Nehru. The president of India at that time had gone to the extent of saying that he would not give his ascent to the bill. Irrespective of the heavy opposition against the Hindu Code Bill, the bill was passed by the legislature of India.
After the Hindu Code Bill was passed many questions arose:
Why should only Hindus be subjected to a Codified Personal Law?
Why are Muslims, Christians, Parsis etc being left out of the Law?
When will India get The Uniform Civil Code?
Though the special marriage act introduced in 1952 allows marriage of the citizens irrespective of their religion thereby legalising all marriages instituted in other religions. The answer to these questions have mostly gone unanswered.
Uniform Civil Code was the dream that the framers of the constitution had seen for India. Many drafts of the Uniform Civil code has been made since independence but none have been implemented. Even before India got independence the idea of UCC had formulated in the minds of B.R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution. B.R. Ambedkar had himself prepared the draft for Uniform Civil Code. But, the UPA government made no efforts to introduce the UCC after introducing the Hindu Code Bill.
The Shah Bano Case Factor
The case Shah Bano vs Mohammad Khan acted as a major boulder in the implementation of the UCC. Those of you who might not know the Shah Bano case was related to the payment of maintenance after divorce in Islam. Of the Five judge panel that presided over the case four were Hindus while Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy had ‘rejected any religious label’. In the case, the judges had interpreted the Quran. The court had ruled the case in Shah Bano’s favour and had further went on to say that the Prophet was ascribed the statement, ‘hopefully wrong’,that a woman was made from a crooked rib, and if you tried to bend it straight, it would break — therefore treat your wives kindly.
The manner in which they interpreted it was considered offensive by the Muslims. The Muslims were agitated and they proclaimed that the implementation of UCC in a Hindu majority country would cause them injustice. They further went on to say that only the Imams are allowed to interpret the Quran.
The Muslim Women’s Act released by Rajiv Gandhi’s Government did not help in decreasing the hostility rather it increased it. The Muslim women’s Act stated that the husband of the divorced wife is only liable to pay the maintenance amount during a three month iddat period. With this the government lost the support of the Muslim Women, the liberal Muslim Section and the Sangh Parivar, who criticised the act in their own ways. After this blunder the implementation of UCC felt like a dream. Until 1998 when the Bhartiya Janta Party rekindled the hopes in the Indian citizens by including the implementation of the UCC in their manifesto. Unfortunately, the implementation of the UCC did not occur in 1998 due to lack of majority and various other social factors.
The future
The Bhartiya Janta Party included UCC in their manifesto in both 1998 in 2019. The introduction of UCC in 2019 manifesto embolstered the dream again.
Protagonists of Uniform Civil Code assert that personal laws must be reformed to make them resilient with the changing dynamic social system.
All eyes are on BJP now. The accomplishments of BJP government range from the abolishment of Article 370 to the abolishment of triple Talakh. The next big thing on the list could be the introduction of Uniform Civil Code. But, the path of implementing the uniform civil code at the national level is fraught with serious Constitutional and political ramifications. Though demand for Uniform Civil Code has its genesis in the Constituent Assembly debates and judgments of Supreme Court, Government would not like to see a flare-up as witnessed during the agitation on CAA or the Farmers Protests.
