Uniform Civil Code: The 'third mega promise' -- BJP at it with justifications

Uniform Civil Code: The 'third mega promise' -- BJP at it with justifications

(According to Article 14 of the Indian constitution, every single citizen is equal in the eyes of law, but the personal laws allow different systems for people of different communities. A Muslim can marry multiple times but a Hindu, Christian or Sikh will be prosecuted. The UCC actually can help in strengthening the cause of national integration.) 

New Delhi/Bengaluru

"For any secular country, laws should not be on the basis of religion. If a nation and states are secular, how can laws be based on religion?," - thus spoke Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Nov 25, 2022 at a media Summit.

The reference was to the Uniform Civil Code. This was BJP's third mega promise to the people of India virtually since the inception of 'Hindutva-based nationalistic' politics of Jana Sangh. The two other promises were a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya - the birthplace of God Ram and secondly, the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2019 itself -- within months it returned to power with a renewed and importantly with an enhanced mandate, the Narendra Modi government has implemented both. The controversial Art 370 was done away with on Aug 5, 2019; on Nov 9 the same year the historic judgement by a Supreme Court bench headed by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi cleared the decks for construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed cite -- where Ram was born. The media commentary 'Ram Lalla gets back home' was very apt.

On Aug 5, 2020, Prime Minister Modi himself in presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat laid the foundation

stone of the temple and conducted the Bhoomi Pujan. Now the committed BJP workers and supporters

the 'third promise' -- the UCC -- will also be implemented at the earliest. In fact, this is only a natural course for 

the saffron party and all its fellow ideological organisations under the broad Sangh Parivar.

The Uniform Civil Code has returned to the public debate as the BJP in Karnataka has mentioned the UCC in its election manifesto released on Monday. The saffron party had made the same promise in polls for Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh too. In two of these states the saffron party has returned to power with a convincing mandate. In the case of Gujarat, braving anti-incumbency of multiple decades the Lotus party attained a historic mandate. 

Thus it is only the natural flow of the political system that a similar promise has been made for Karnataka now.

In the words of Amit Shah yet again, "“Not only the BJP, the Constituent Assembly also advised Parliament and states 

that UCC should come at an opportune time". The remarks have not been out of the blue.

The fact of the matter is the Constitution itself lists Uniform Civil Code among the Directive Principles of 

State Policy, which makes it a desirable objective. For records, one can point out that the UCC 

aims to provide one law for the entire country to be functional to all religious communities in their 

personal matters including marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption. 

The BJP's political opponents have tried to stall the move largely guided by political considerations and

the chief among that consideration is the well known Muslim or for that matter the minority appeasement card,

A PIL was filed before the Supreme Court challenging such moves by the Uttarakhand government. In their wisdom the highest court of the land had dismissed the petition. “What is wrong with it? They have constituted a committee under their executive powers under Article 162…,” said CJI D Y Chandrachud.

In fact the plea was rejected by a Bench comprising CJI Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha.

In the legal sense, the UCC can replace currently applicable various laws vis-a-vis various 

respective communities which are inconsistent with each other. These laws include the Hindu Marriage Act, 

Hindu Succession Act, Indian Christian Marriages Act, Indian Divorce Act, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act.

   

One major benefit would be a great relief to Indian courts. Experts say "burden" is felt by the judiciary when 

different communities are governed by different laws. This often delays the justice system.

Having a Uniform Civil Code will help to solve the cases quickly and provide justice and also help 

simplify a lot of technical matters that only add to confusions.

Goa is the only state in India having Uniform Civil Code as special marriage act 1954 is applicable to all.

Notably, with regard to the Muslims, the Modi government has also enacted a law banning Triple Talaq giving

immense relief to Muslim women. The Sharia law since the 19th century had left issues vis-a-vis

the status of women and on similar matters concerning other religious communities. 

There was no uniformity as it discriminates on the basis of gender. But the Triple Talaq has contributed a lot

yet there are issues as most Muslim women get restrained from their right to property, dowry settlement and divorce.

It is also worth mentioning that in the case of Mohammad Ahmed Khan Vs Shah Bano Begum, the Supreme Court in 1985 gave the historic judgement and for the first time directed for enacting the UCC. 

On this backdrop, it is also worth referring to yet another litigation called the Sarla Mudgal case of 1995.

The petition revolved around a husband who 'converted himself into Muslim religion from Hindu religion' and 

justified practicing polygamy. The court in interpretation of section 494 of Indian Penal Code interpreted that 

such marriages are invalid. It was also ordered that a Hindu marriage continues to subsist even after one of the 

spouses converts into Islam. Needless to add, under Hindu Marriage Act the marriage gets dissolved 

only by decree of divorce under section 13 of the Act and modern Hindu law strictly enforces monogamy. 

ends