UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

The Issue is important primarily for Mains Examination. However, we would suggest you to take note
of the factual aspects like the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) and set of articles dealing with
equality of caste and gender in the constitution of India, as there is a potential of these being asked in
Prelims.

Why in news now-a-days?

In July 2016 the present Government of India (GoI) asked the Law commission to study the
feasibility of bringing in Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country.
The proceedings were initiated as it is the Constitution of India which in the form of a nonjusticiable Directive Principle of State Policy, under article 44, has asked the GoI to bring UCC in
the country.
However, before getting into any further details in the issue let us first understand what Civil
Code is.

What is a Civil Code?

Civil Code denotes the entire body of laws governing rights relating to property and otherwise
in personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance.
Presently, in India, there are different laws governing these aspects for different communities.
The laws governing inheritance or divorce among Muslims, based on Sharia, are completely
different from those pertaining to Hindus and/or Christians and so on.
UCC administers the same set of secular civil laws to govern different people belonging to
different religions and regions. This supersedes the right of citizens to be governed under
different personal laws based on their religion or ethnicity. Normally, these common areas, which
get covered by a civil code include:
a) Personal Status
b) Rights related to acquisition and administration of property
c) Marriage, divorce and adoption
Here, a few questions arise, why so much hue and cry and what wasnt it introduced earlier? To
get answer to these questions, we have to get into the background of the issue and related
developments in the country.

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Brief history of developments related with UCC:

It was the colonial Masters of the nation, The British, who played an instrumental role in shaping
the legislative literature of our country. They realized the need for a uniform set of law to govern
the country and on this ground the first Law Commission was constituted and was given the task
of studying the feasibility of bringing Uniform Civil Law in the country. Knows as the Lex Loci
(Law of the place) report 1840, the suggestion emphasized on the necessity for codification of
Indian law relating to crimes, evidences, contract etc., but it recommended that personal law of
Hindus and Muslims should be kept outside such codification. A formal declaration of the policy
was made by Warren Hastings in the Administration of Justice Regulation, 1780, where it was
pronounced that while dealing with disputes of marriage, divorce or inheritance, people would
be governed by their personal laws.
The British codified the law of crimes and made a secular law to deal with the crimes. In the realm
of personal laws very few attempts were made. The attempt for a Codified Hindu law has also
failed.
Post colonial period, especially during framing of the Constitution, the issue was hotly debated.
The father of the constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had demonstrated his will to reform Indian
society by recommending the adoption of a Civil Code of western inspiration. He had infact
opposed the delegates who wished to immortalize personal laws, especially Muslim
representatives who showed themselves very attached to the Sharia. To show his commitment to
the issue it seems fit enough to extract a part of his stamen in the Constituent Assembly (C. A.)
here:
"I personally do not understand why religion should be given this vast, expansive
jurisdiction, so as to cover the whole of life and to prevent the legislature from encroaching
upon that field. After all, what are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty
in order to reform our social system, which is so full of inequities, discriminations and
other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights."
However, he could not manage anything more than Article 44 (originally article 35 in the Draft
Constitution), stating:
"The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the
territory of India."
This recommendation was to remain a dead letter, notably because the minorities to begin, with
the Muslims took a hard line on their personal law. Many Congress members also opposed a
reform of Hindu practices concerning inheritance, marriage (and divorce) and adoption, as
shown by the fate of the Hindu Code Bill.
This phrase refers to a project aiming to reform traditions of the Hindu society. The British had
drafted such a text in 1946 but they had had no time to get it adopted. In 1948, Nehru entrusted
the drafting of the new code to a sub-committee of the Assembly and nominated Ambedkar as
its head. The latter got written in it fundamental principles such as equality between men and
women on the question of property and the necessity of justifying concretely a petition for divorce
a procedure which belonged too often until then to a case of a repudiation of the wife by her
husband.
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This questioning of the customs governing the private life of the Hindus aroused a profound
emotion, not only among the traditionalists of the Hindu Mahasabha, but also among leaders of
the Congress as prestigious as Rajendra Prasad, who, after being president of the Constituent
Assembly had become the first President of the Indian Republic. Prasad, in a letter to Patel, who
himself showed strong reservations vis--vis such reforms of the Hindu traditions, rose against a
project whose "new concepts and new ideas are not only foreign to the Hindu law but are
susceptible of dividing every family".
Jawaharlal Nehru was attached to this code in which he saw, quite as Ambedkar, one of the corner
stones of the modernization of India. He even announced that his government would resign if
this bill was not passed. Ambedkar pressed him to submit it as quickly as possible to Parliament.
The Prime Minister asked him for a little of patience and even split the Code into four subsets for
defusing the opposition before submitting it to the Assembly on September 17, 1951.
Now, if we look into the ongoing debate very carefully, a lot is being said about a set of laws in
existence and in effect in Goa. What is it?

The Uniform Set of Laws in Goa:

It is interesting to note here that in the state of Goa, a similar law is in effect. The law, known as
Goa Family Law can find its origin in a Portuguese era Civil Code of 1867. It is the set of civil
laws that governs all the Goans irrespective of the religion or the ethnicity to which they belong.
The Uniform civil code in Goa is a progressive law that allows equal division of income and
property regardless of gender between husband and wife and also between children. Every birth,
death and marriage has to be compulsorily registered. For divorce there are severe provisions.
Muslims that have their marriages registered in Goa cannot take more than one wife or divorce
by pronouncing talak thrice. During the course of marriage all the property and wealth owned
or acquired by each spouse is commonly held by the couple. Each spouse in case of divorce is
entitled to a half share of the property and if one dies the ownership over half of the property is
retained by the other.
According to the Uniform Civil Code even if the children (both male and female) have got
married and left the house, the other half has to be divided equally among them. Thus the parents
cannot disinherit the children totally as they can dispose only half of the property in a will and
the rest has to be compulsorily and equally shared amongst the children.
The presence of the set of law in one particular state makes it important to look into the
significance of UCC.

Significance of UCC:
The inference that can be drawn from the Goa Family Law, the perceived UCC in India can be
instrumental in achieving a number of objectives starting from:
a. Achieving gender equality to equality among religions and castes.
b. This equality before law in every aspect would in-turn promote communal harmony.
c. The equality would also result in integration of various section in the mainstream and
would promote national integration.
If UCC is so beneficial then what is the debate concerning it?
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Debate in respect to UCC:

While framing the Constitution of India, the framers accepted the notion of State recognizing all
religions and treating them equally. This is taken to be a positive concept as against the negative
concept adopted in The West where the state doesnt recognize any religion.
However, this recognition and treating every religion equally was interpreted as every religion
being able to practice and propagate their belief and faith both in private and in public. This
practicing and propagation of religion in public has often than not resulted in communal tension
and disharmony and caused communal riots as well. Yet, since till date there is no rule or
regulation guiding the public behavior of citizens in India, the administration often stood helpless
before the on slaught of the religious leaders.
Uniform Civil Code, in the long run would prove to be the tool guiding the public behavior of
the citizenry and in-turn, may curb certain freedoms, till date enjoyed by different communities
across India.
It is also argued by certain sections of the minority, that by UCC, the majority Hindu Community
would put their beliefs and practices upon the minority. The GoI is taking necessary steps to allay
this fear of the minorities, infact, recently in an interview to an Urdu Daily, the Prime Minister of
India specifically argued that by UCC it does not mean imposition of Hindu Code of Law, rather
an equal set of law for every community.

Conclusion
In order to promote the spirit of uniformity of laws and accomplish the objectives enshrined in
Art.44 of the Constitution, the following suggestions need immediate consideration:
a) A progressive and broadminded outlook is needed among the people to understand the
spirit of such code. For this, education, awareness and sensitization programmes must be
taken up.
b) The Uniform Civil Code should act in the best interest of all the religions.
c) A committee of eminent jurists should be considered to maintain uniformity and care
must be taken not to hurt the sentiments of any particular community

The issue of Uniform Civil Code has been raked up time and again. It is also argued that
Uniform Civil Code, once implemented would bolster the condition for communal harmony
in India. If so why is it debated so much?

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