What Is A Uniform Civil Code? How Was It Formed? And How To Implement The Uniform Civil Code? In the next 4 minutes of reading, we will provide you all the information regarding Uniform Civil Code.
Civil code is an amendment or provision in India which was put together to form a uniformity in the country. In simple words, this amendment says that ‘law will be the same for all people of different religions and castes, all would be treated equally.’
Under the law, no person or a group of a community belonging to a specific religion would get any special treatment.
Civil code deals with religious marriage, separation, divorce, inheritance, adoption, guardianships. Under the Constitution of India, the Directory principles are mentioned in articles 36-35. The civil code Is written under article 44.
Goa is the State in the country where a uniform civil code is applied.
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Since it has been a very sensitive topic in the nation for over a few years, let’s get some knowledge about how it was formed. And how to implement it.
How Was It Formed?
During the Mughal empire (rule of Aurangzeb), there was no proper code or any set of codes for personal affairs. It was simply solved regionally. But there was a criminal code-named sharia (fatawa Alamgiri) based on statecraft, general ethics, justice, economics, and punishment.
But later in a few years, East India Company invaded the nation and earned some Diwani rights in the year 1765. Then they eventually brought a bigger change in Mughal empire laws.
They passed a bill under civil code that there will be a separate set of laws for different religions. For Hindus, the Hindu code was formed and sharia for Muslims. Other religions had to follow English laws.
However, in the Hindu code, few discriminatory laws brought Hindus to change it. Hindus went over many reforms to change it.
On the other side, Muslim leagues were revolting because they were worried that the same kind of changes would be done in sharia too.
So, in 1937, they requested to form a law called Muslim personal law- sharia act to prevent their civil code to go under any kind of change. But it wasn’t approved and they were told to follow the existing rules.
Much later, the reformation process was completed in the year 1955-56. After the independence and while the formation of the constitution, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar wanted that the uniform civil code should be written in the Constitution.
So there won’t be any problem in the future. But pandit Jawaharlal Nehru opposed it to be written. Eventually, Ambedkar resigned.
It is said that due to the hard work and efforts of Ambedkar, at least the directive principles have been mentioned in the Constitution under article 44 but not as a fundamental right.
How To Implement The Uniform Civil Code?
To implement a Uniform civil code there are four ways:
- Leave it as it is
- Discard only discriminatory laws
- One uniform rule and few exceptions for every religion as long as it is not discriminatory.
- Uniform law without any exception.
According to the Constitution of India, even if the civil code is applied to the nation, it is not binding for the states to practice. It only advises on how to make a state work under this law to form a uniformity.
In recent times, the Delhi government suggested implementing a uniform civil code. The Delhi HC said that ” Since the modern Indian
society is gradually becoming homogenous dissipating traditional barriers of religion, community, and caste, the uniform civil code should be applied all over the country.”
The present ruling party Bharatiya Janta Party has also come forward to implement a uniform civil code across the nation.
Conclusion
Uniform civil code has always been a susceptible topic in the nation. There are many debates still going on about the idea of maintaining uniformity.
It will be advantageous if we all stay under one law forming a uniformity but it is disadvantageous to some people ethically or economically.
Now, it’s the decision of the government whether to implement it or not. So, this was a small glimpse of uniform civil code.
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