The Bharatiya Janata Party {BJP} is readying for the 2024 general elections and there’s been enough and more indication that the Uniform Civil Code {UCC} will be a key poll plank. Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are already going ahead with their plan to formulate a common policy and there’s a growing call in other BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh for a UCC.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly told party functionaries at the BJP office in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, “It is time to focus on uniform civil code”.
There’s an ongoing exercise to ascertain the electoral feasibility of the UCC implementation in 12 BJP-ruled states. The party is aware that it would face opposition from its allies in Bihar, Puducherry, Sikkim, and three other states, according to a report in The New Indian Express.
Understanding the Uniform Civil Code
Uniform Civil Code means one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities in personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption.
As of now, Hindus have their own laws on marriage, while Muslims are governed by their personal laws. Similarly, Catholics and Parsis are governed by their own laws.
The code comes under Article 44 of the Constitution — one of the Directive Principles of State Policy — which lays down that the State shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
Simply put, this means that the vision of the Uniform Civil Code is enshrined in the Constitution as a goal towards which the nation should strive, but it isn’t a fundamental right or a Constitutional guarantee.
Dr BR Ambedkar, while formulating the Constitution, had said that a UCC was desirable but for the moment it should remain voluntary.
Origins of UCC and demand for it in India
The first call for the UCC goes back to colonial India when the British government submitted a report stressing the need for uniformity in Indian laws in 1835.
In 1985, the demand for the UCC came to the fore in the judgment pronounced in the Shah Bano Case. Shah Bano had moved Supreme Court seeking maintenance after her husband divorced her following 40 years of marriage by giving triple talaq and denied her regular maintenance.
The top court had noted then: “It is a matter of regret that Article 44 has remained a dead letter… Common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws, which have conflicting ideologies.
No community is likely to bell the cat by making gratuitous concessions on this issue. It is for the State, which is charged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code and it has legislative competence to do so.”
The BJP has been a strong advocate of the Uniform Civil Code. In fact, in 2019 it was part of the party’s election manifesto and in 2024 its going to be a prominent election plank.
The UCC and the equality debate
Experts note that the UCC would provide equal status to all citizens irrespective of the community they belong to. They opine that it could lead to consistency and gender equality when it comes to personal laws, and usher in some much-needed reforms.
However, some note that while it could go a long way in enforcing equality, it could also be in contravention of Article 25 {Right to Freedom of Religion}.
Practising personal laws is one way a citizen of India exercises their right to religion. Some constitutional and society experts believe that with a UCC, this right could be eroded and minority communities could feel threatened as the culture in India would be homogenised.
Uttarakhand and Goa, the similarities and differences
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that Uttarakhand would be the first state to implement the UCC. However, it is important to note that Goa has been following the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867 which is also called Uniform Civil Code.
Pushkar Singh Dhami said a committee of experts on the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code was formed in Uttarakhand.
The Goa Civil Code is not strictly a Uniform Civil Code as it has specific provisions for certain communities.
For example, Hindu men have the right to bigamy under specific circumstances mentioned in Codes of Usages and Customs of Gentile Hindus of Goa {if the wife fails to deliver a child by the age of 25, or if she fails to deliver a male child by the age of 30}. For other communities, the law prohibits bigamy.
But, it does set a precedence for what the implementation of a UCC would look like. As former Chief Justice of India Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde had said in March 2021, “Goa has what Constitutional framers envisaged for India – a Uniform Civil Code. And I have had the great privilege of administering justice under that Code. It applies in marriage and succession, governing all Goans irrespective of religious affiliation.”
Plans of other states
The Uttar Pradesh government is working toward bringing the promised UCC into force even if it receives no support from the Opposition.
“Laws should be the same for all… Our government is going to implement the Uniform Civil Code. There’s a serious discussion on this in all BJP-governed states,” UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said on Saturday.
The leadership in Himachal, which will hold Assembly elections later this year, is on the same page. Chief Minister Jairam Thakur said that his government has started examining the possibility of implementing the UCC in the state and would take appropriate steps “soon.”
In Madhya Pradesh, senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Pratap Singh has written to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, urging him to constitute a committee to look into different aspects of the implementation of a common civil code.
When asked if the Centre had given a signal to introduce UCC in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said that if any decision is to be taken, it has to be discussed in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Earlier this month, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray batted for the common law. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi should implement the Uniform Civil Code in this country,” Thackeray said, adding that a law should be brought in to curb population growth. (First Post)
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