India has two types of laws I.e., criminal law and civil law. While criminal law covers the fundamental rights of a person and is uniform for every person irrespective of his religion, civil law covers the personal rights of a person which are based on his religion and are non-uniform.
Civil Code
Civil code is a set of personal laws that deals with the issues relating to marriage, property, and divorce. It is also known as family law or communal law or personal law because this law is governed by various religious scriptures. Currently, India has various civil codes which are different for different religions. For example, the Hindu marriage act, 1955; Muslim personal law, 1937; The Indian Christian marriage act, 1872; Parsi Marriage and divorce act, 1936 and many more for different religions.
Uniform civil code (UCC)
As the name suggests, there will be a uniform personal law for every person irrespective of his or her religion. This has been proposed by the current government to implement UCC to replace the various communal laws by forming one law for the entire nation.
For this, the 22nd law commission has been established that is going to seek the views and opinions of the public on the implementation of UCC.
Why there is a need to introduce UCC?
One of the major reasons is to promote equality in India and to protect the personal and fundamental rights of women. For example, under the Hindu marriage act, a girl can get married only after attaining 18 years of age, but a Muslim girl can get married at the age of 15. Child marriage is strictly prohibited under the Hindu marriage act whereas it is allowed under other communal laws. Many activists and 90% of the women in Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan have come in support of UCC and asked for a complete ban on polygamy and Nikah Halala.
(Nikah halala, is a practice in which a woman, after being divorced by triple talaq, marries another man, consummates the marriage, and gets divorced again to be able to remarry her former husband). Many activists called it a patriarchal setup and demand the UCC.
UCC – A Promise of the BJP Government.
When BJP came into power, it raised important but controversial issues and promised to solve them. These were -
- Abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Scrap Triple Talaq
- Construction of Ram Mandir
- Implementation of Uniform Civil Code.
While the other promises have been fulfilled by the government, UCC has been the last in the list of promises in the BJP’s manifesto. And it is also going to be fulfilled by the government if everything goes in Favour.
However, it is not going to be that easy, and has to face many challenges including the disapproval of the general public.
Arguments of the General public
This issue has taken a religious angle. While many came for the support of UCC, many have come to protest against it.
- They fear that UCC will impose the Hindu ideology on every community and minority community has to adhere to the Hindu code.
- UCC will violate the personal right of a citizen to practice any religion.
- It will end the Indian essence of unity in diversity.
Favours:
- UCC will help reduce inequality based on religion, especially for women.
- It is not trying to impose Hindu ideology on Indian citizens as many secular countries like the US and the UK have laws like marriage after 18 years of age, prohibition of polygamy, and polyandry.
- Whenever there is a comparison between fundamental rights and personal rights, the former is given more importance and the UCC is going to protect the fundamental right to equality.
Challenges
- UCC under Part IV of the Indian constitution: -
When our constitution was framed, the Uniform civil code was categorized under Part IV which deals with the directive principles of the state policy. These directive principles are just a form of suggestion and not laws. To convert UCC into an implementable law, the Government needs to pass a bill in the lower house of parliament.
- Need to get a majority for the approval of bill: -
A majority in approval is needed to pass the bill in parliament. Suppose the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha with majority, the next step will be to present the bill in the upper house of parliament i.e., Rajya Sabha.
- President’s Approval: -
After the bill is passed in both houses of parliament, the challenge will be to get the president’s approval. The president may approve or disapprove the passed bill. For disapproval, the president may use the following three options-
Absolute Veto: To reject the bill.
Suspensive Veto: To recommend changes and send the bill to the parliament again
Pocket Veto: To put the bill on hold for an indefinite period.
And if the bill is approved by the president the next challenge will be the judiciary.
- Judicial challenge: -
It is to ascertain, when the fundamental rights of a person clash with the personal rights, in that case, which right will overrule the other. In the case of UCC, there is a possibility that the right to equality will clash with the right to practice any religion.
However, to test this, trials have been started in Delhi High Court and Public Interest Litigation (PILs) have been filed by the government.
Conclusion
UCC has been a very bold step toward the modernization of the Indian civil code. Naturally, this issue will create controversies at first because religions are related to the sentiments of people and they don’t want to modify their religious practices. But in the long run, it can prove to be very beneficial in gender equality.
What are your views on the implementation of UCC? Write your opinions in the comment box.
