One Nation, One Law : Uniform Civil Code

Uniform Civil Code or UCC is a legal bill for all Indian citizens, irrespective of their Religion, Caste, Gender, Society and Creedt. However, it has not yet been presented in the Parliament, nor has any draft been made public.

The main aim of this bill is to uniform all different religious laws into one set of codes that will be followed by all citizens. UCC will include one law for marriage, divorce, succession, and adoption that have currently different rules in different religions.

The idea of UCC came during the constituent assembly. The assembly had mixed but vocal opinions regarding the Uniform Civil Code. UCC got support from all 15 female members of the assembly, along with them UCC also received support from Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Meenu Masani, Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi, Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer, and entire Congressmen including the first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

UCC got criticized by some members of the Constituent Assembly too. An objection of the bill came from Mohammad Ismail, leader of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League. A group of 5 Muslim members also brought an amendment against the UCC. This group consisted of Ismail, Naziruddin Ahmed, Mehboob Ali Baig, B Pokar Saheb, and Ahmed Ibrahim. Maulana Hasrat Mohani, a member of All India Muslim League, also took part in this debate and opposed the bill of UCC.

With the recent emergence of the bill, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) governed states have shown willingness towards following Uniform Civil Code although none have officially adopted it.

Goa is the sole state of India that follows a version of UCC; which is the Civil Code of 1867. Its past status of being a Union Territory gave Goa the privilege of following the code.

After the Constituent Assembly, the need for UCC rose again in 1985, during the Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum case. Shah Bano was a Muslim woman who got divorced through triple talaq and then kicked out of her home by her husband Mohammed Ahmed Khan.

As the verdict of this case, Supreme Court (SC) ruled out that Shah Bano is to receive financial aid from her husband, which was not legal under Muslim Personal Law. The then Congress government, due to the fear of Muslim clerics and fundamentalists, introduced a law in 1987 to overturn SC’s judgement.

In fact, the minority community in India (mainly Muslims and Christians) are not keen towards the idea of following a uniform code. Apart from this, some converted and separatist groups from different states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Nagaland are opposing the UCC.

Uniform Civil Code will give every person an equal status and would be a good step against discrimination. It will decrease the burden on Indian Judicial System and simplify the legal system.

UCC will ensure that every citizen of the country will stand on an equal pedestal by decreasing gender disparity and making laws that were previously less favourable towards women and adopted children. It will also promote the secular image of India. However, the implementation of UCC has practical difficulties.

UCC is a bill that is being drafted to unite all religions under one law. The current Central-leading party, BJP has promised to bring UCC to fight gender discrimination. To make this favourable for every person associated, the law commission asked the public to submit their suggestions and views on UCC from 14 June 2023 to 14 July 2023.

Seeing the overwhelming responses and requests asking for more time, the law panel extended the deadline till 28 July 2023. More than 75 lakh responses have been received by the law commission.

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Mansi Dixit
She is a vibrant intern at The Narrative.
A Journalism and Mass Communication graduate, Mansi finds her creative haven in non-fiction.