Uniform Civil Code

Uniform Civil Code

The Article 44 of the Constitution of India says the following – The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

This is the where the question of the Uniform Civil Code comes into the picture. Coming to what the term civil code means. The term civil code is used to cover the entire body of laws governing rights relating to property and otherwise in personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, and inheritance. As India is a country consisting of people of different faith there are different laws governing the above mentioned aspects for different countries in the country. Therefore the laws governing the marriage, divorce or say inheritance would be those different for Muslims, Hindus, Christians and so on. Now further coming to what does the demand for Uniform Civil Code mean. The demand for such a code essentially means unifying all the personal laws of all the communities or say religions to have one set of secular laws dealing with these aspects that will apply to all citizens of India irrespective of the community they belong to.

The use of these three words “Uniform Civil Code” breaks the nation into a hysterical jubilation and frantic wailing. The main reason of contention revolving around UCC has been secularism and the freedom of religion enumerated in the Constitution of India. The preamble of the Constitution states that India is a "secular democratic republic" This means that there is no State religion. A secular State shall not discriminate against anyone on the ground of religion. A State is only concerned with the relation between man and man. It is not concerned with the relation of man with God. It does not mean allowing all religions to be practiced. It means that religion should not interfere with the mundane life of an individual.

The need for enactment of Uniform Civil Code was first arose before the Supreme Court of India in the case of Mohammad Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum .In this case, a penurious Muslim woman claimed for maintenance

from her husband under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 after she was given triple talaq from him. The Supreme Court held that the Muslim woman have a right to get maintenance from her husband under Section 125 beyond the Iddat period. The Court also regretted that Article 44 of the Constitution has remained a “dead letter” as there is “no evidence of any official activity for framing a common civil code for the country”. Justice Y.V. Chandrachud, the then Chief Justice of India, emphasized: “A common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to law which have conflicting ideologies”. In my opinion when we all know that India is a country that follows the system of Secularism whereby it treats all its citizens who are adherents of different faiths equally and doesn’t discriminate amongst its citizens then Uniform Civil Code as a code should in my opinion be implemented throughout the country so that there is no disparity and ill – will among the people of different faith for each other. The enactment of such a code will promote equality in its real sense which in turn will lead to harmony across the nation as this code will manifest secularism in a form that no other nation would have ever thought about.