Introduction
In simple terms, Uniform Civil Code means discouraging the laws that are the outcomes of scriptures and customs of a specific religious community with a set of common rules that govern every citizen in the same manner. Article 44 of the India Constitution deals with the provision of the Uniform Civil Code under the category of Directive Principle of State Policy.
The Position of Personal laws in India: Issues of personal law deals mainly with issues like divorce, marriage, inheritance, that all comes under the category of concurrent list.
Hindu laws at large is been modified by the statutory enactments. The Hindu personal law is also applicable to the communities namely called Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists. The Hindu personal law was codified by the Parliament of India in 1956. It then was split into 4 parts which are called: Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956, The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.
In matters of Muslim personal laws, there is a different scenario that is being prevalent. Muslim laws are still unmodified and traditional. The Shariat law of 1937 deals with the matters of all Indian Muslims in India. The law calls out that the State cannot interfere in their matters. They even follow the orders of a religious authority that pass a declaration based on the interpretations of the Quran and the Hadith. Apart from Hindu and Muslims following their own religious personal laws even the Jews and Christian have their own set of personal laws to which they abide.
Advantages of Uniform Civil Code
It gives equal status to every citizen: A country that is democratic and the republic in nature should have a common set of laws for all irrespective of their religion, class, caste, gender, etc.
It encourages gender consistency: It is perceived that religious laws are generally biased in nature especially towards women. Men are generally given a higher status towards matters like succession or inheritance. Uniform civil code will help both the genders to come at par with each other.
It will build National Integration: It is the fact that both civil and criminal laws are the same for all the citizens of the country. By implementing the Uniform civil code, citizens will then share personal laws as well. It will leave no scope for discrimination against each other. There will be no further enjoyment of some special privileges which some particular community took benefit of because of their particular religious personal laws.
To protect the desire of the young population: It is believed that the religious differences that arise amongst the young population drain their true potential. Instead, their social attitude should be shaped with the help of universal and global principles of modernity, equality, and humanity.
To detour the most controversial matter of the reform of existing personal laws: It is perceived that even personal religious laws are at some point in favor of the upper-class patriarchal society. Angry and dissatisfied women of different religious community demand for the execution of Uniform civil code as some orthodox people of the communities think that any changes that would be done in personal religious laws would destroy the pureness and the history behind the same.
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The disadvantages of Uniform Civil Code
Trouble while implementing the Uniform Civil Code due to vast diversity in India: In a practical form, it is way too hard to implement some common rules for personal issues. India is a country with vast cultural diversity, various forms of religion, sects, castes, states, etc.
Violation of Fundamental Rights: The Indian Constitution provides various Rights that deal with the Right of Freedom of Religion of one's own choice. With the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, the Freedom of Religion will be violated
It is a very delicate and resistance task: While implementing the Uniform civil code, the government should be unbiased and sensitive enough while handling different religious groups. This implementation process will require time as well as demand human resources
A belief that Uniform Civil Code will decline their religious rights: Minorites in the country especially perceive that the implementation of the Uniform civil code will violate their fundamental rights to follow and propagate the religion of one's own choice. They even dread that a general law that will be common to all will abandon their heritage and customs and will implement laws that will at the slightest point will be influenced by the religious community in the majority.
Time for the reform is yet to come: Implementation of Uniform civil code will require a lot of resources. India is yet to become a self-supporting country to invest money in secondary issues. The country will also face opposition from various religious groups while implementing the Uniform civil code. At present, the main concern of the government should be on primary issues like poverty, providing basic education to all, creating job opportunities, and many such matters like this. India being a developing country should invest its resources to first uplift the country in an international forum and think of the solutions to eradicate such problems rather than investing sources on secondary concerns like the implementation of Uniform civil code.
Cases in which the issue of Uniform Civil Code is discussed
In one of the cases of the Supreme Court recently, the question concerning the inheritance and succession was discussed. It was of a Goan domicile which is governed by the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867, or the Indian Succession Act of 1925.
Even the Court urged the Government at the time of Shah Bano's case in 1985, but the government did not do anything to bring about the execution of the Uniform civil code.
The state of Goa as a "Shining example": The Apex Court called out the state of Goa as an example where the Uniform civil code is executed to all irrespective of what religion they follow and even these Uniform civil code laws protect certain rights of the individual. The civil code that is followed in Goa is called as Portuguese civil code 1867. Under this code certain provisions are made which are as follows:
In a State registered Muslim marriage, the man of the same cannot practice polygamy.
In a marriage, the property is shared and enjoyed equally by both husband and wife. Pre-nuptial agreements are made which is an order of the day which states that the assets should be divided in an unbiased way between the man and the woman at the time of divorce.
Conclusion
It is not guaranteed that the implementation of the Uniform civil code will bring about equality among the genders as well as different religious sects. The sensitivity that needs to be taken care of is that the start should first be done by religious communities themselves. In the end, the Uniform civil code is a process that will evolve on its own, preserving the rich legal heritage in India. The government implementing the Uniform civil code must take care that a balance is maintained between the protection of fundamental rights and the religious belief of an individual. The implementation in the future of the Uniform civil code should be in such a way that an ordinary man can figure out that the execution is done in an unbiased way and by not giving any particular individual or the community some benefit of political and religious deliberation.
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