Why uniform civil code continues to be a hot potato

The uniform civil code is a proposal to replace the personal laws of major religious communities with a common set that will govern each citizen

GN Bureau | July 4, 2016


#Shah Bano   #supreme court   #uniform civil code   #Muslim personal law  
Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India

The uniform civil code is a hugely controversial subject in India. The law ministry has now asked the law commission to examine in detail all issues pertaining to it and submit a report to the government.

 
Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda on July 2 said that “the issue has been discussed in and outside parliament. It has also been on the BJP’s agenda. Therefore, the law commission has been asked to conduct a detailed study and file a report. It may take six months to a year”.
 
This has triggered a political storm, with opposition leader in Kerala assembly Ramesh Chennithala saying that the “present move is only for political gains as the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls are round the corner”.
 
The issue has been simmering for the past three decades. It came into sharp focus during the Shah Bano case in 1985 when the debate was on Muslim Personal Law that allows unilateral divorce and polygamy.
 
Not that the constitution makers did not ponder over it. A directive principle in the Indian constitution says: “The state shall endeavour to secure for citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”
 
But that did not help matters, with Goa being the only Indian state to have a uniform civil code.
 
The argument favouring the uniform civil code is quite simple. A secular country like India should have a common law for all, rather than having different set of rules that are based on religious practises.
 
The larger issue is about justice for Muslim women as they have to face the feared prospect of triple talaq.
 
Advocate Farah Faiz last week appealed to the supreme court not to accept All India Muslim Personal Law Board's support to it.
 
Read more here

Comments

 

Other News

How to become Gandhi: A new book chronicles an experiment

Becoming Gandhi: Living the Mahatma`s 6 Moral Truths in Immoral Times By Perry Garfinkel Simon & Schuster India, 264 pages, Rs 699

Saga of ‘An Ordinary Man’: Gandhi’s struggle, retold in his own words

I Am an Ordinary Man: India’s Struggle for Freedom (1914–1948) Edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph, 456 pages, Rs 999

“Essence of Gandhiji’s Teachings”: Rajaji’s Homage to the Mahatma

Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari: Vol. VIII, 1946–48 By Ravi K. Mishra and Narendra Shukla (Editors) Orient BlackSwan, 460 pages, Rs 2,575

‘Gandhi’s Spiritual Politics: Austerity, Fasting and Secularism’

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, renowned academic publishers Sage have opened access to many notable articles and essays on the Father of the Nation. Here we reproduce an excerpt from one of them, well-known historian Amar Farooqui’s highly original and detailed article in

Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav, Technology & Bharatiya Bhasha Summit launched

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday launched the Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav and inaugurated the two-day Technology & Bharatiya Bhasha Summit in New Delhi. The summit aims to facilitate a seamless transition from the current education ecosyst

India retains 40th rank in the Global Innovation Index 2023

India has retained the 40th rank out of 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2023 rankings published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. India has been on a rising trajectory, over the past several years in the Global Innovation Index (GII), from a rank of 81 in 2015 to 40 in 2023. Inn

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter