India has long aspired for the below items:

  1. Grand temple for Lord Ram at Ajodhya
  2. Abrogation of article 370
  3. Uniform Civil Code
  4. Getting back Gilgit-Baltistan, Pak-occupied-Kashmir and China-occupied-Ladakh.

The fist and second items are accomplished. In this article we will discuss the steps that should be taken for Achieving Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

What is the problem?

Writing in single sentence, the personal laws for all the religions in India, except Islam has been shaped on modern lines. In nutshell, if say Hindu law code is applied on Christian or Vice-versa, then their lives are not going to change that much. But if a progressive law code is applied on Muslims then the life of Muslims is going to change drastically. How?

(Legally) Indian Muslims are still governed by Shariat. THE MUSLIM PERSONAL LAW (SHARIAT) APPLICATION ACT, 1937 explicitly states that all Indian Muslims will be governed by Shariat in matters of personal law like marriage, inheritance etc.

What are the various sticking points or discriminative practices in Shariat which is preventing the implementation of a UCC? The list is below:

  • Unilateral talaq by men: Many people have an impression that Modiji banned triple-talaq. But that’s not fully correct. Talaq-e-biddat (which permits a man to instantly divorce his wife) is what is banned. But Talaq-e-sunnat (which allows a man to divorce his wife unilaterally in 3 months) is still legal. Now a Muslim man just need to wait for 3 months for dumping his wife and children. In case of all non-Muslims, a man or woman has to go to a family court for getting a divorce, (s)he cannot unilaterally divorce his/her spouse.
  • Maintenance: Under Hindu/Christian laws any dependent (wife, Children, parents, daughter-in-law) are entitled for Maintenance. Even after a divorce, a Hindu man is legally obliged to maintain his wife (if she is not earning) and his Children till they start earning or get married(in case of daughter). But legally, a Muslim lady or children have no such right.
  • Polygamy: Sections 494/495 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 mandate 7 years jail if a person (man or woman) marries if his/her spouse is alive or don’t have a divorce decree from court. But this is not applicable of Muslim men. Sections 494/495 will be applicable on a Muslim man only after he takes a 5th wife. But he can avoid punishment if he divorces one or more wives and bring the count to 4 or less.
  • Nikah-Halala: If a Muslim man divorces his wife and wants to remarry, then his wife has to go through halala i.e. marry and sleep with another man for a night, then the man divorces her, then only the man can re-marry his wife. This practice is only applicable to Muslims. A divorced (non-Muslim) couple can marry without any restrictions, nor even have to go to court. Nikah-Halala is also a big source of income for many maulvis.
  • Inheritance: The inheritance for all other religions are more or less the same (except the Muslims). The Muslim inheritance is very complex, results to disputes and gives less property rights to daughters. Hindu or Christian or Parsi succession gives equal rights to daughters and wife (females in general). Under say Hindu succession act, it is very simple to partition the deceased person’s property unlike the Islamic succession. For e.g. a Hindu man dies, his property will be equally divided among his wife, mother, sons and daughters. But if a Muslim man dies, his mother will get 1/6th, father will get 1/6th, if there is a son the share of Children will be different from if there is one daughter and more than one father. If father is not alive, brother and sisters will be entitled for a share and may be even more than what the wife gets. In nutshell Islamic succession is very complex and must be resulting to many disputes.

What should the step-by-step guide for achieving UCC?

Supreme Court has a big role to play. How?

  1. Supreme Court has declared talaq-e-biddat (instant triple talalq) unconstitutional. That forced Modi Govt to come up with a law banning this.
  2. In the “Latifi v. Union Of India” case , Supreme Court has already made provisions for Maintenance for divorced wife and abandoned Children. Divorced Muslim women and their Children are already getting Maintenance today.
  3. Sections 494/495 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 don’t mention any religion. The courts have put Shariat law above IPC 494, 495. That’s how polygamy has been legalized for Muslims. IN order to ban polygamy, Supreme Court just needs to make an observation that IPC 494/495 shall apply to everyone, or in other words place IPC above Shariat.
  4. There are already cases pending in Supreme Court against Nikah Halala. Supreme Court just needs to declare the practice unconstitutional.
  5. In the matters of Inheritance, it is simple. A Muslim lady just needs to go to Supreme Court challenging the Sharia Inheritance laws on violating Right to Equality (Article 14/15 of Constitution). And once Supreme Court decrees that Daughters have same property rights as Sons, then the whole Shariat succession maths will go for a toss and Muslim organizations themselves would want to have a progressive and simple succession law.

After the above is done, Govt should invite members from all religions to discuss the UCC. In the UCC, govt should make an attempt to take the good things and apply it across.

For e.g. to list a few (there may be more):

  1. Hindu laws have a concept of “Hindu Undivided Family” which helps Hindus get income tax benefits. Govt can propose to generalize this by defining “Indian Undivided family” where people from all religions can benefit. This will be a good bait for all non-Hindus to accept UCC.
  2. The concept of Muslim “Nikahnama” or having a written/signed marriage agreement OR concept of marriage registration in case of Christians can be made part of UCC.
  3. The Goa civil code has a provision: in case of divorce the money earned by the couple after marriage shall be partitioned equally. Similar provision is there in US and West. The same can be made applicable to all Indians. This will further demotivate divorce.

Govt. should not try to impose one religion’s personal law on other, rather it should to find a common meeting ground by taking good things from all religions and applying them on everyone.

In nutshell if Supreme Court does the following, it will pave way for UCC:

  1. Put IPC 494 and 495 above Shariat
  2. Declare Nikah Halala unconstitutional
  3. Give equal rights to inheritance to daughters using Article 14/15 of Constitution.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.