The term civil code is used to cover the entire body of laws governing rights relating to property and otherwise in personal matters like marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance. The call for a uniform civil code for India has been gaining traction from all avenues of the society. As a modern society, we really need to come up with a unified civil code for leading our country to the next millennium and beyond.

However, there is a big controversy about the topic whenever the issue comes up at any venue. So what is the true nature behind all these? Let us examine the situation starting with Indian Constitution which is and should be the basis of all laws in India. The article 14 of the Indian Constitution is as follows.

Right to Equality

14. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Then the question arises, why is that there are different sets of laws that govern different people, all citizens of India, mind you. Let me explain the current state of laws in India. As far as the Criminal Laws are concerned, everyone is subjected to the same code, known as the Indian Penal Code. However, the civil code of India is a mess of different sets of laws according to what religion that they follow. We have a) The Hindu Law (which covers Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists), b) Muslim Personal Law, c) Christian Personal Law and Parsee Civil Law. This itself is a blatant violation of the article 15 of the Indian constitution that says

15. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

There are inherent inequalities built into these various civil codes. A classic example is that the Muslim Personal Law allows the Muslim women to inherit only half of that of men. One does not have to be a constitutional lawyer to see that it violates the 15^th article. If you go into the marriage and divorce areas, these different civil codes take a quick turn to absurdity. So, the call for a uniform civil code asks for unifying all these different personal laws and coming up with a single secular civil code that is applicable to all the citizens of India, regardless of sex, caste or religion.

As human beings and citizens under the same tricolor flag, and abiding by the same constitution, I feel that we all should be subjected to the same laws. This is the only way that we can fulfill the vision of the founding fathers of the country as they were drafting the constitution to enable this young country with tens of thousands of years of rich and varied heritage to set forth on a path of freedom and equality so that we may be called as the best country ever in history. Are you still unconvinced that the constitution asked for a unified civil code? Well have a look at the Article 44 of the constitution that says:

44. The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

So, there is no excuse for denying all the citizens of India, what is promised by our constitution.

Source : Constitution of India

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Tags: civil law, common civil code, domestic avalanche, hindu law, indian constitution, indian penal code, muslim personal law, muslim women, Society, unified civil code, uniform civil code

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