UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

 

Part IV, Article 44 of the Constitution states that “The State shall endeavor to secure the citizen a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India”

 

Courtesy – Wikipedia – “Personal laws were first framed during the British Raj, mainly for Hindu and Muslim citizens. The British feared opposition from community leaders and refrained from further interfering within this domestic sphere. Indian state of Goa was separated from India due to colonial rule in the erstwhile Portuguese Goa and Damaon, retained a common family law known as the Goa civil code and thus being only state in India with a uniform civil code till date”.

Why Uniform Civil Code (UCC)?

At present though IPC is present matters of faith, religions are allowed to manage matters such as marriage, property rights, adoption, maintenance, divorce. Having Uniform Civil Code would strengthen secularism in our country and make all the citizens equal having same rights irrespective of class, faith and gender orientation.

UCC is supported by liberals and opposed by conservative religious bodies for their personal narrow short term gain. For one nation there has to be one law. This will ensure fair treatment to everyone and ensure justice to everybody irrespective of his religious orientation, class, creed and gender. An apt example is of Shah Bano case where court could not give justice to the lady where she got a unilateral divorce based on Sharia. A 73 year old lady married for 40 yrs could not get maintenance when unilaterally based on triple talaq , her husband divorced her. The SC remained a mute spectator when Indian National Congress supported a bill to protect the muslim personal law and with the brute majority of congress the law was passed and the lady did not get justice.  To read more on it one may google it.

The constitution exhorts us to adopt it. It has been in the manifesto of some of the progressive political parties and was twice considered for tabling it in parliament. This monsoon season there is a strong possibility of it getting tabled in the parliament for consideration and Law Commission of India has asked for suggestions and inputs from individuals and organizations.

The suggestion window is open till 13 th Jul 2023. Giving here the procedure to register suggestions from progressive citizens of India   -

 

Go to the following site

https://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/

GO TO

Click on Uniform Civil Code  - Public Notice (NEW)

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Click on View

A public notice will appear like this

 Share your recommendations/ comments / suggestions at “click here” or email at membersecretary-lci@gov.in

 I am sharing the recommendations which I have shared to Law Commission of India on the topic.

 

SUGGESTIONS FOR UCC

There should be a common uniform code (refer to article 44 of our constitution) of civility based on sound ethics and values even though people are of different faith or different religious affiliations. The values and ethics may be based on best practices customs and traditions observed by persons of different faiths for the following

 

1. Uniform Property rights

2. Uniform policies on polygamy/ monogamy/ live in relationship allowance continuance and government subsidy cover to such families

3. Control of places of worship in terms of govt/ trust/ private

4. Uniform Divorce laws

5. Uniformity upto 10 th education wrt dress and appearance

6. Uniform laws for Madrassas, Gurukuls and other faiths’ open schooling not following CBSE/ NCERT/ UGC pattern

7. Subsidy / or no subsidy for various ' yatras' of various faiths.

8. More incentives for family with not more than 2 children, highest incentives for family with no children and no subsidies/ incentives for a family with more than two children belonging to all faiths.

9. Appointment to places of worships as Moulavis/ Pujari/ or religious teacher to be made on recommendations of the outcome of internal exams/ panel interviews or such boards regulated by apex body of respective faiths/ religious body.

10. Uniform policies for trans genders from respective faiths.

11. Abolition of certain inhuman (and hurting flora and fauna) customs / traditions across the faiths/ religious affiliations after due consideration by intelligentsia of the respective faith/ religions.  

12. Abolition of coercive conversion.

13. Abolition of any art forms, depiction of any expressions denigrating any faith / religion.

14. Abolition of any local kangaroo court based on faith/ religious beliefs such as Khaps, Fatwas and other exhortations by local bodies not having any legal standing or is not based on Indian constitution / IPC and other Indian jurisdictional proclaims.

15. Creation of apex body for each faith/ religious affiliation to be met every 5 yrs to weed out time barred customs / traditions and to welcome new ideas.

16. Strive to make a society where there are no castes in any religion/ faith. To start with try to abolish the Title/ Surname/ Last name from while keeping the names of the newborns. Over the period the caste impressions would get blurred.