Change for a Common Interest - Uniform Civil Code

Leishangthem Roshan Meetei *

India is a country of vast diversity, having people with different race, religion and language, and it is marching towards forming a strong nation. It is also accepted that India is a nation in making, and being a nation in making we have to look for the common interest all the time.

As an example, we had various indirect taxes which was a headache for the tax payers, but now we have come up with GST which is clubbing all the indirect taxes and we have many other examples where we had opted for the thing which is common for all. Likewise, we need to club all the personal laws which are in force to bring out a common civil code for all.

Our Constitution makers also felt the need for the uniformity in personal laws, so they kept the provision of Uniform Civil Code as a part of Directive Principle of State Policy in Article 44.

Need for a Common Civil Code

There are many laws regarding marriage, divorce and inheritance which are in force in India, and they are used according to the religion of the parties. Some of the examples are Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Special Marriage Act 1954, Dowry Prohibition(Amendment) Act 1984, Domestic Violence Act 2005, Hindu Succession Act 1956 and various other inheritance norms based on different religion.

All these laws and norm are enforced till today, but there are many loopholes and there are also many areas which are not covered like Triple talaq, polygamy in Muslim, depriving of property right to Hindu Women etc.

According to the existing laws Christians and Muslim women are comparatively far better than Hindu women, because both for Christian and Muslim have the full-fledged right to own property but the Hindu women has no right to own property.

There is also a problem of triple talaq and polygamy in Muslim community, which directly challenges the dignity of any Muslim wife. This is a major element which majority of the Muslim women want to eliminate from the existing Muslim Personal Law.

In order to bridge the difference in marriage, divorce and inheritance laws of different religions and also to address the discrimination faced by women in such cases we need a Common Civil Code to minimize the cases in a long-term perspective, instead of amending the existing laws one by one.

Calls for the Common Civil Code

The call for a Uniform Civil Code started right from the very early stage of Independent India. Leaders like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru were of the view that being a secular country India needed a Uniform Civil Code, but they could not enact the law because of heavy opposition from seniors like Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel, and also from many sections of the then Indian society.

Supreme Court ordered the government to enact the bill since Shah Bano case in 1985. Before the Shah Bano case, Supreme Court had tried two similar cases under Criminal Code. Since then Supreme Court had reminded the Government about the need for a Common Civil Code on several instances.

Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and several other Muslim Women Social Activists are calling for a codified Muslim Family law. In one of the study done by BMMA in 10 states of the country out of 4710 Muslim women, 92.1% of the women want total ban on oral/unilateral divorce (Triple Talaq) and 91.7% of the women are opposed to polygamy.

Many right wing organisations are also supporting the Uniform Civil Code with some ulterior motives. They are even encouraging people, through many mediums, to support Uniform Civil Code. Dead set against All India Muslim Personal Law Board is spearheading the movement against Uniform Civil Code and they got the support from many regional and national parties like CPI(M), AITC, BSP and AIMIM. They are also organizing a signature campaign against it.

According to them Uniform Civil Code will infringe the Sharia- the Islamic jurisprudence based on Quranic teaching. They also stated that there is no need for addition or deletion on the existing law regarding marriage, divorce and inheritance, as the Sharia itself is total and complete.

And also, many experts are of the view that the motive behind the proposal of Uniform Civil Code is to curtail the Muslim Laws in the country and to establish a Hindutva based law throughout the country.

Way Out

The cases of discrimination faced by women in a marriage institution is common to all the religions and we need a solution to minimize the number of such cases for the greater interest of our country.

It is the government who has to act first, so the government has asked the opinion of the Law Commission to examine all aspects pertaining to Uniform Civil Code. And on the other hand, the union government should also bring all the opposition parties under confidence and draft the bill without any biases on religious line.

Many constitutional experts and legal experts are calling for a Uniform Civil Code to save the dignity of women and also, to show the genuiness of our Secular Stand.

Government should work honestly to serve the needs of the country and people should also understand the need for change to serve our collective interest.