The moot point is whether India is prepared to have a Uniform Civil Law. Should all the personal laws be done away with? Religion must be restricted to the spheres, which legitimately appertain to religion and the rest of life must be regulated, unified and modified in such a manner that we may evolve, as early as possible into a strong consolidated nation – KM Munshi The term ‘Civil Code’ means to cover the entire body of personal laws governing individual’s right relating property, personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance. Currently there are different laws governing these aspects for different communities in secular India. For Instance, the laws governing inheritance or divorce among Hindus would be different from those pertaining to Muslims or Christians and so on. Uniform Civil code in India is the proposal to replace the personal laws based on the scriptures and customs of each major religious community in the country with a common set of laws governing every citizen. These laws are distinguished from public/civil laws. Public/civil laws refer to an act that applies to public at large, as opposed to private law which concerns private individual rights, duties and liabilities etc.
If you saw a man running away from a store with a few stolen products under his arm, he is violating public law. He committed the crime of theft, and that affects everyone. On the other hand, if your neighbour filed suit against you because you disturbed his peace by loud music late at night, you may be violating private law. You infringed on your neighbour’s right to peaceful sleep at night. Essentially, the difference between public law and private law is whether the act or acts affect society as a whole or an issue between two or more people.
Personal laws were first framed during the British rule, mainly for Hindu and Muslims citizens. The British feared opposition from community leaders and refrained from further interfering within this domestic sphere. The demand for a uniform civil code was first put forward by women activists in the beginning of twentieth century, with the objective of women’s rights, equality and securalism. Till independence in 1947, a few law reform were passed to improve the conditions of women, especially Hindu widows. In 1956, the Indian parliament passed Hindu code bill amidst significant opposition. Though a demand for a uniform civil code was made by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his supporters and women activists had to finally accept the compromised of its being added to the Directive Principles because of heavy opposition.
Myths about Uniform Civil Code:
There are many myths about enactment of uniform civil code in India viz.,
• Uniform civil code means imposition of Hindu law: This is absolutely incorrect. Uniform civil code only means uniformity in personal laws. It will be a neutral law which will have nothing to do with religion.
• Uniform civil code will take away your freedom of religion: No, it will not. Freedom of religion granted as Fundamental right will remain so under the Constitution.
• We don’t really need the uniform civil code, India is working just fine: By the logic we don’t need any laws for the matter. We absolutely didn’t require codification of Hindu law even, but the act did help the community in the long run, making its implementation easy.
• Uniform civil code is the state subject and central government need not act : From the very beginning, the uniform civil code should have been enacted to do justice to all the members of societies in India. However, it is a myth for the central government to take shelter behind the directive principles of state policy and throwing the ball in states courts.
• Implementation of uniform civil code in a secular country is impossible: In fact, uniform civil code enactment is absolute necessity for a secular vast country like India.
Necessity of Uniform Civil Code:
In almost all countries there is uniform civil code applicable to all the citizens. The basic idea behind uniform civil code is to end the discrimination based on gender and religion, where women are the worst sufferers because of the current personal laws. Although the Muslim women are the worst affected under the Islamic personal law, yet the sufferings of women belonging to other communities such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, etc cannot be overlooked. Gender discriminations exist despite the legal constitutional provisions. Should that be allowed continued existence? Should not all the citizens of the country enjoy equal rights and freedom in all respects irrespective of which religion, community or gender they belong to? Also, opposing uniform civil code is tantamount to insulting the highest court of justice, then Supreme Court of India.
(To be Contd.)....
By Prof. Col. PS Bajaj (Former Chairman of IMT Ghaziabad, Senior Prof and Adviser IIPM Group of Institutes, currently he is with ALS as faculty for IAS & SSC-CGL courses)
