After entertaining a public interest litigation (PIL ) seeking uniform legal provisions for grant of divorce, maintenance and alimony, the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response on a PIL seeking enactment of uniform adoption and guardianship laws, thus bringing the issue of the framing of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) under its scrutiny.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian sought responses from Union ministries of home, law, and women and child development on the PIL seeking uniform adoption laws filed by advocate-petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, who was also the petitioner for a uniform law on divorce and maintenance. The bench tagged the two petitions for a joint hearing on the issues, which form the core of UCC.
On December 16, the same bench had warily entertained two PILs seeking uniform divorce laws and uniformity in grant of maintenance and alimony to women. The CJI-led bench had expressed fear that the PILs might ruffle the sensitivities of religious communities, who have for decades resisted a uniform personal law for the country.
It had asked the counsel, “You want all the personal laws to be abolished? How else can your prayers be granted? You are asking the court to go in a direction that will involve encroaching upon or demolishing personal laws. Can we remove discriminatory practices against women in various religious communities without encroaching into their personal laws?” However, the petitioner pointed out that the SC had done it by declaring instant divorce in the Muslim community through triple talaq as unconstitutional.
The petitioner contended that over the years, the SC had nudged the Centre to move towards promulgation of a Uniform Civil Code, but to no avail. In the Shah Bano Begum case, the SC had said in 1985, “A common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to law which have conflicting ideologies.”
