Quickfacts: Uniform Civil Code in India

Lets revisit the background of the Uniform Civil Code in India, in light of the recent happenings in the country.

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What does constitution say

Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November 1949 and came into force on 26th January 1950.

Apart of various other things it contains Fundamental Duties and Directive principles of State Policy.

The basic difference between these two is that unlike Fundamental rights, 

Directive principles are not justiciable. The government can’t be called to courts for not implementing them. 

However, they serve as guidelines for making laws for the people and the government cannot make laws against them, if done, it can be declared violative of the constitution.

The Uniform Civil Code comes under the Directive principles. 

Article 44 of the constitution of India states-

“The State shall endeavour to secure for citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”

 

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Current status

The Supreme court has maintained that there is no relation between the religion and the personal law, requiring marriages in all the religions to be compulsorily registered, to prevent child marriage, enabling women rights, enabling widow to claim inheritance etc.

However, the govt. is yet to achieve the implementation of uniform civil code owing to widespread opposition from various religious groups and political parties. In this context, the Shah Bano case makes as interesting study.

Shah Bano case (1985-86)

 

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 It was a very controversial lawsuit where Shah Bano Begum was divorced by her husband in 1978, then she was 62 year old and mother of five. She filed a criminal suit against her husband for alimony and consequently won the right to alimony, which made several Muslim religious groups speak out against the ruling declaring it as against the Islamic law. It triggered controversy about the extent of having different civil codes for different religions, especially for Muslims in India.

This case caused the Congress government, with its absolute majority, to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which diluted the judgment of the Supreme Court and, in reality, denied even utterly destitute Muslim divorcées the right to alimony from their former husbands. 

However, in the later judgements including Daniel Latifi case and Shamima Farooqui versus Shahid Khan case, the Supreme Court of India interpreted the act in a manner reassuring the validity of the case and consequently upheld the Shah Bano judgement and The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 was nullified. Many Muslims including All India Shia Personal Law Board supported the Supreme Court's order to make the right to maintenance of a divorced Muslim wife absolute.

Similar story?

The present case of ruling out the custom of triple talaq is also meeting the similar resistance form various Muslim groups.

Hope this would make the entire matter easier to understand for you. 

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