What is ucc ?

Hello ma'am 

The answer 

The answer to your question can be solved by following article.

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/research-paper-on-uniform-civil-code-8717.asp

Hope this helps 

Krish Mahajan

What are the facts? What is the context?

Originally posted by : Gayatri
	What is UCC ?

Hello,

In the field of law, UCC stands for Uniform Civil Code. Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is defined in our Constitution under Article 44 of Directive Principles of State Policy. It states that it is the duty of the state to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India. In other words we can say that it means one country one rule. 

Background:

The British Government in 1840 on the basis of Lex Loci report had framed Uniform laws for crimes, evidence, and contract but personal laws of Hindus and Muslims are left by them somewhere intentionally. On the other hand, British India Judiciary provided for the application of Hindu, Muslim, and English law by British Judges. Also, in those days reformers were raising voice to frame laws related to women against the discrimination done by them basically under religious customs like Sati, etc.

Constituent Assembly was set up to frame our Constitution in 1946 in Independent India which consists of both types of members: those who wanted to reform the society by adopting the Uniform Civil Code like Dr. B. R Ambedkar and other was basically Muslim representatives who perpetuate personal laws. Also, the proponents of the Uniform Civil Code were opposed by the minority communities in the Constituent Assembly. As a result, only one line is added in the Constitution under Article 44 in Part IV of DPSP (Directive Principles of State Policy).

Case Laws:

Shah Bano Case

Mohammad Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum mainly known as Shah Bano Case. In this case, in 1985, Shah Bano moved to Supreme Court for seeking maintenance under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure when her husband divorced her after 40 years of marriage by giving triple talaq and denied her regular maintenance. The Supreme Court gave the verdict in favour of Shah Bano by applying section 125 of the Indian Criminal Code and it is applied to all citizens irrespective of religion. Then Chief Justice, Y.V Chandrachud, observed that a Common Civil Code would help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to law. And so, the court directed Parliament to frame a UCC. On the other hand, Rajiv Gandhi Government was not satisfied from the court decision; instead of supporting it, the government enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 to nullify the Supreme Court judgement in Shah Bano Case and let the Muslim Personal Law prevails in a divorce matter. In this act, it was mentioned that Muslim woman has right for maintenance only for three months after the divorce i.e. iddat and then shifted her maintenance to her relatives or Wakf Board.

Sarla Mudgal Case

This is the second instance in which the Supreme Court again directed the government under Article 44. In this case Sarla Mudgal v Union of India, the question was whether a Hindu husband, married under the Hindu law, by embracing Islam can solemnize the second marriage. The Supreme Court held that adopting Islam for a second marriage is an abuse of Personal laws. Further said that Hindu marriage can be dissolved under Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 i.e. mere by converting itself into Islam and marry again does not dissolve the marriage under Hindu Marriage Law and thus will be an offense under Section 494[5] of the Indian Penal Code.

 

The above is some basic knowledge you should know about what is UCC. This will give you a brief idea, and will assist you to give a start to this subject.

Hope this helped!

Regards,

Ish*ta Desai

Law Student

 

UCC, i.e. Uniform Civil Code, for lay man to understand means a unified code governing or covering within its ambit all personal law dealing with Marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and guardianship. For such a diverse land like India it's hard to say that each personal law is perfect or rather unified, some has loopholes or can say was framed considering the then prevailing patriarchal society. As we move forward people are welcoming the equality towards women or to say equality in society. To give an example: The triple talak which falls under Muslim Personal law, was considered to be biased against women. It was the Case of ShayaraBano v. Union Of India that made the concept of triple Talak unconstitutional. There are some instances where one person renounces his/her own religion to avail the benefit available under some other religion by way of conversion and hence getting away with the punishment or consequences of his/her act. To prevent this from happening society needs the unified personal law for which the need was forseen by the drafters of our Constitution. Article 44 of our Constitution states that - States are required to secure for its citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India. There were many debates in the assembly and Pdt Nehru had tried to convince the members to bring the Bill in action but was unable to do so. The fight is still going on bring the Bill by lawyers and activist by way of petition in the Court. One such case where Court pronounced in its judgement the need to bring UCC in action was Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India.
While there are debates as to whether the UCC bill should be passed or, the question is still unanswered, the who had gone through the personal laws, the loopholes, the instances where a person misuses the beliefs, the law to perform something which is against the society or something which does not fall under the principle of good concine and equity, then yes the UCC I the need of hour.

-Law Student
K Joshi.

In our country, even secular laws are implemented differently in different parts of the country, depending upon the local value system and ethos.  Even if there is UCC, duly enacted, state of affairs would be no different.

Hello,

In India, every religion has personal laws concerned with deciding on factors such as marriage, divorce, custody of children, maintenance for divorced women, guardianship, adoption, succession, and inheritance.

Different religions have different means and methods to deal with these factors.

Personal laws evolved over time with their origin to be traced from conventions and traditions prevalent in the religions they belong to.

These factors under the ambit of respective personal laws are civil in nature but have a huge bearing on the society as a whole. While there are common laws governing the actions in criminal nature of every citizen there arose a question on why there weren’t common laws governing certain important civil factors under the purview of personal laws.

This debate rose to relevance as light was shed on the fact that many personal laws were inconsistent with the changing times, wherein some even impractical and at times even unfair to a particular section of people to a certain extent.

Its also to be comprehended that personal laws can even be incoherent with certain fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, challenging and contradicting principles of equality, liberty, and justice.

Implementing a uniform civil code would deal with these issues by ensuring that these laws that were earlier under the ambit of personal laws would now be treated like common laws for all citizens irrespective of what religion they belong to.

A common ground dealing with these issues would hence ensure that certain outdated conventions under the disguise of personal laws that are incoherent to certain fundamental principles in the constitution can be curbed or eliminated.

In simpler terms single law replacing all the personal laws applicable to every single person no matter what religion he/she practices is the very essence of a Uniform Civil Code.

It has also been a part of The Directive Principles of state policy in the Indian Constitution in the form of Article 44. The objective of Article 44 of the Directive Principles in the Indian Constitution was to acknowledge and deal with the prevalent discrimination against certain vulnerable sections of the society and harmonize diverse cultural groups across the country.
 

-Law student

Mahesh PS

Article 44 of the Indian constitution states that " the State shall endeavour to secure  for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory
of India.
UCC envisages one law for India which would be applicable to all religious communities in matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption.
Goa has a common family law thus being the only state to have a uniform code.

Case law relating to UCC:
Mohd. Ahmad Khan vs Shah Bano Begum and others(1985)
This landmark judgement in Muslim women's fight for rights in India and against the set Muslim personal law became one of the reasons to implement
the UCC.
Shah Bano filed a petition in the court seeking maintenance from her divorced husband Mohd.Ahmad Khan under section 125 of the CrPc,1973.The Court directed to pay to Shah Bano. Khan appealed against the judgement of the High court of Madhya Pradesh.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board supported the petitioner saying the judgement would violate The Muslim Personal Law(Shariat) Application Act,1937.

The judgement held that section 125 of CrPC applies to Muslims and would prevail over the personal law of the parties.
The SC held the decision of the HC that gave the orders for maintenance to Shah Bano under CrPc.
In its judgement, the court also observed that 'a common Civil Code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to 
laws which have conflicting ideologies'.
The impact of the judgement was that, the then PM Rajiv Gandhi passed the Muslim Women(Protection on Divorce Act),1986 to overturn the judgement.

This way along with other reasons UCC still remains to be implemented.

Hello, Greetings of the day!

This article will help you to get a clear picture of Uniform Civil Code:-

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/uniform-civil-code-implemented-in-india-13809.asp

 

Hope it helps

Regards, 

Sneha Jaiswal