"Law Commission Consultation Revives Debate on Uniform Civil Code"
Uniform Civil Code (UCC)
a single set of civil laws governing all citizens regardless of religion, envisaged under Article 44
Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP)
non-justiciable constitutional guidelines in Part IV; Article 44 places UCC here
India's personal laws — governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and maintenance — are religion-specific, a legacy of British colonial administration. The colonial government codified separate personal law regimes for Hindus, Muslims, and Christians largely by consulting clergy and religious scholars, embedding a patriarchal and community-segregated framework that independent India inherited wholesale. The Constituent Assembly debated a common civil code extensively; Article 44 of the Constitution placed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the Directive Principles of State Policy, signalling its desirability without making it justiciable. The framers, including B.R. Ambedkar, envisioned eventual reform but deferred it given the political sensitivities of the immediate post-Partition moment.
Since independence, the Hindu Code Bills of the 1950s partially reformed Hindu personal law — covering marriage, succession, adoption, and maintenance — but no comparable reform was extended to Muslim or Christian personal law. The Shah Bano case (1985) brought the UCC debate to a national flashpoint when the Supreme Court upheld a Muslim divorced woman's right to maintenance under Section 125 CrPC, prompting legislative reversal through the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The Supreme Court has repeatedly, in cases such as Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995) and John Vallamattom v. Union of India (2003), directed Parliament to enact a UCC, without binding effect. The 22nd Law Commission has now reopened the consultation, making this a live policy question once again.
The UCC debate is fundamentally about the relationship between Article 44 (DPSP on UCC), Article 25 (freedom of religion), Article 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs), and Articles 14 and 15 (equality and non-discrimination). The tension is constitutional: personal laws derive legitimacy from religious freedom guarantees, yet their patriarchal content conflicts with the equality guarantee. Courts have navigated this by distinguishing between the essential religious practices doctrine — protecting only those practices integral to a religion — and social customs that merely accompany religion without being essential to it.
The article's central analytical contribution is reframing the UCC debate away from the conventional Hindu-Muslim binary. It argues that India's personal laws are already uniformly patriarchal across all religious communities: only a man can be the karta of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF); a divorced Muslim woman's maintenance entitlement is time-limited; tribal customs in several regions deny women inheritance rights; and a Parsi woman who marries outside the community faces excommunication. …
Consider the following statements regarding 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam':
1.These provisions will come into effect from the 18th Lok Sabha.
2.After becoming an Act, this will be in force for 15 years.
3.It has provisions for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes Women within the quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Under which Article of the Constitution of India is the 'Right to Privacy' protected?
Which of the following statements about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India is/are correct?
1.Article 44 of the Constitution places the UCC in the Directive Principles of State Policy.
2.The Goa Civil Code is the only existing uniform civil code applicable to all residents regardless of religion.
3.The 21st Law Commission recommended immediate enactment of a UCC as a national priority.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
The 'essential religious practices' doctrine, as developed by Indian courts, is used to:
Consider the following pairs:
Personal Law Feature — Community Affected
1.Only men can be 'karta' of a joint family — Hindu
2.Divorced woman's maintenance limited to iddat period — Muslim
3.Woman marrying outside community faces excommunication — Parsi
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
With reference to the Shah Bano case (1985) and its aftermath, which of the following is correct?
Assertion (A): A Uniform Civil Code grounded in constitutional principles of equality and dignity need not be in conflict with the right to religious freedom under Articles 25 and 26.
Reason (R): Indian courts have held that the right to religion protects the choice of faith and essential religious practices, not the regulation of civil relationships in ways that subordinate women.
Which of the following is correct?
Want the full note, Prelims Facts & MCQ answers?
Create a free account — takes less than a minute.
Create free account