Category: Constitution of India

Beginning of a new epoch for Muslim women

Posted in Constitution of India, Fundamental Rights, Islam, Muslim LawTagged , , 8 Comments

Recently with the verdict of the Supreme Court calling the practice of triple talaq as unconstitutional has paved a golden way towards religious reforms in the Muslim personal laws against the practices that were derogatory to a woman’s dignity. BUT this is just a beginning.  Much has to be done; though we cannot deny it is a very strong and historic beginning, one can say probably the process of reforms in Muslim personal laws has just begun and this is a very strong process and is very important because a process well begun is half done.

Triple talaq was a burning issue and a topic of discussion for the past many years. We were constantly bombarded with many debates in news channels as well as newspapers about its validity, and the injustice and the cruel practices followed causing nightmares to Muslim women. Incidents such as talaq via WhatsApp, Skype, letter, cell phones were shocking and made us wonder how technology could be used in this way as well.  As rightly being said by someone, when a new technology is invented you not only find how to use it in various ways but you also try to find how to misuse it in many ways as well.

The triple talaq controversy started when Shayara Bano approached the Court, for assailing the divorce pronounced by her husband – Rizwan Ahmad on 10.10.2015, wherein he affirmed: “…in the presence of witnesses saying that I give ‘talak, talak, talak’, hence like this I divorce from you from my wife.” It was her contention, that such a divorce which abruptly, unilaterally and irrevocably terminates the ties of matrimony, purportedly under Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 be declared unconstitutional. And arguments put forth from her side to declare it unconstitutional were:

  1. Talaq-e-biddat, pronounced is not valid as it is not a part of Shariat.
  2. This practice of triple talaq is violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens of India under article 14, 15 and 21 of Indian constitution.
  3. It was also submitted that practice of triple talaq was not sacrosanct to the tenets of Muslim religion as it has already been denounced internationally.

From the arguments put forward by the advocate of Shayara Bano one can see that not only he gave constitutional reasons for declaring the practice violative of fundamental rights but also he was able to give religious as well international viewpoint against this inhuman practice.

Now all the eyes were on supreme court that whether the court will follow its old traditional course or take a new route, which will come in the history of supreme court as a historic and landmark judgement – and Yes, this time supreme court changed its course and held that NO BODY OF LAW CAN CLAIM A HIGHER AUTHORITY THAN THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIAsurely a landmark judgement.

One more uniqueness of the case was the bench of judges that headed the case and the various statements given by them. There were five judges of five faiths Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. Judges of five faiths heading a case where Muslim personal law was in question and verdict of declaring that practice as unconstitutional just shows how secular, impartial and beautifully extraordinary our Indian judiciary is, and Nemo est supra leges (NO ONE IS ABOVE LAW); not even religion.

If we look at the statements of various judges of the bench it clearly shows there was unity in disregarding the 1400-year-old talaq practice. Out of the five judges, three were totally in agreement to declare it unconstitutional like Justice Kurien Joseph said: “What is held bad in the Holy Quran cannot be good in Shariat, and in that sense, what is bad in theology is bad in law as well.” “There cannot be any Constitutional protection to such a practice” whereas former Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice Abdul Nazeer deferred and said while triple talaq “may be sinful”, the court can’t interfere in personal laws, which have the status of fundamental right under the constitution. They were of the view that parliament should bring a law to end the practice.

Regarding the government’s view in the judgement, the government as well as opposition party has appreciated the verdict of the apex court and have agreed to the fact that legislature will bring a law to end the practice.

There is a great significance of this judgement for Muslim women and a great victory for them.  They have won the first and most important battle as triple talaq was a nightmare for Muslim women, and by declaring triple talaq as unconstitutional, the court has put a saddle on an unruly horse. The judgement of the Supreme Court has clothed her with dignity and strength.

KUDOS to women like Shayra Bano and others who have the courage and strength to come forward, and raise their voice against injustice, and were determined to get justice. It is truly said that there is no force more powerful than a woman’s determination to rise. For several decades she was suppressed, tortured in the hot water of patriarchal arbitrariness, but nobody knew she is like a tea bag; you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water and finally she fought back.

Now, what is to be seen is how far this fight goes? What is the next step? Is Uniform civil code the next step? All these questions remain unanswered. Nevertheless, until that time, let us just celebrate this first victory.

Talaq, Talaq, and Talaq is NO, NO, AND NO.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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DEEKSHA KATHAYAT

Deeksha Kathayat is currently pursuing BLS LLB (third-year) from Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Law. An enthusiast debater and avid mooter, she’s into occasions where she can express her views on various issues. She believes that we realize the importance of our voice only when we are silenced. An aspiring bureaucrat, she describes herself as Unstoppable, Unconstrained, and Zealous.

Right to Privacy – An analysis of the recent developments

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The Aadhaar scheme by the Union Government has been the point of friction for quite a few days. It had been under the lens of allegations like breaching individual’s privacy as it involved the collection of biometric data. With the 12-digit Aadhaar becoming the basis of obtaining the benefits of Government programmes, subsidies, tax administration, and online financial transactions, right to privacy comes under threat.

Privacy has been defined as “a state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people” or “the state of being free from public attention” by the Oxford dictionary. Privacy can also be defined in the realms of body and mind. The three aspects of privacy include bodily integrity, dissemination of personal information, and right to make own choices.

The debate over privacy has come to light after two cases: the first being the Satish Chandra versus M.P. Sharma case whose documents were searched and seized when a First Information Report was lodged against him, and the second being Kharak Singh versus the State of Uttar Pradesh in which the petitioner was subjected to constant surveillance by police authorities which led to infringement of his constitutionally guaranteed rights.

The Government had reverberatingly stated that “privacy” was never a fundamental right. The government said that “privacy is an elitist concept” and has no benefit for the common masses. It also asserted that privacy is not explicitly mentioned as a right in the Indian Constitution. The increasing number of petitions coerced the Supreme Court to decide on this highly contested issue. Hence a separate nine-judge constitutional bench was formed. This constitutional bench on 24th August overturned the previous decisions of the 1950s and 1960s which held that “Right to Privacy” is not a fundamental right.

Although it was clear that “Right to Privacy” was not absolute in all aspects, the court needs to establish a balance between the rights of the state and citizens on one side and rights of citizens and non-state actors on other.

Four states, West Bengal, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and one Union Territory, Puducherry, have argued in the SC that they support a constitutional right to privacy.

The apex court said that although Right to privacy is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution but can be easily interpreted if we look through Article 21 and thus forms an integral part of this fundamental right. Privacy forms the heart and soul of Constitution as it embedded in both dignity and liberty which is Article 21. It was a historical unanimous decision though there were six judgements given.

There were 5 different judgements of 5 judges while a common judgement of four judges, including Chief Justice J S Khehar. The common verdict in the words of the court is “the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.”

“Right to Privacy” is not absolute in the sense that it has to withstand the threshold of restrictions imposed on other fundamental rights. These aberrations must be a fair, just, and reasonable in the context of Article 21.

The ambit and the contentious areas of the right to privacy will soon be defined with the course of time. Other highly disputed areas include the various social networking sites and applications like the Facebook, WhatsApp, and other messaging services which breach Privacy by selling personal information to private companies.

The bench concluded that “Privacy” is the core of human dignity. This judgment has also wobbled the fate of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and the recent beef ban by the Maharashtra Government. Privacy also covers the aspect of personal intimacies, sexual orientation, marriage and food.

This mammoth decision has a galore of impacts and consequences. Now, Aadhaar enrollment would be voluntary and not mandatory, thus not depriving anyone of the welfare benefits if one opts not to enrol. The government is entrusted to advertise that Aadhaar is a voluntary scheme.

This verdict will have an impact on the collection of data by the government and even private companies. This could also lead to the formulation of a legal framework to safeguard individual data as well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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ASHISH KUMAR YADAV

Ashish is an undergraduate student at Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi. The institution has a Meta College concept and focuses on an interdisciplinary approach.  He is the co-founder of two non-profit ventures, one of which deals with education and the other in enhancing scientific communication among the masses. He has done three research projects at Cluster Innovation Centre the first aimed to create a prototype of full- fledged Hindi dictionary and another on the Study of a community’s cultural tradition (Banjara community). The third project was Hafta bazaar aimed to digitalize and study the various weekly markets in Delhi. He is quite ardent in the field of economics and journalism and is intrigued by topics from digital marketing to management, which are reflected in his undergraduate studies. He was also a part of a report published on education.

 

Indian Constitution and its Contractual nature

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The Indian preamble, an ideal manifestation of the objective sought to be imbibed in the Indian culture, not only in theory but in practice as well; starts with this magnanimous terminology of ‘We the people of India’; therefore, bestowing the ultimate power to the Indian citizens; so it is the Indian citizens, who under the umbrella of ‘Collective force’ have bestowed the Indian Constitution[1] with the power and not the Indian Constitution who has bestowed the power on the Citizens of India.[2]And all the powers of the Constitution, and that of the Constituent Assembly is been derived from the people of the India.[3]It is this declaration which makes preamble a sublime one as compared to others, it is draft not forced upon the unwilling hands of the bearer, in fact, it has been given to themselves by the people of the country through their ‘Constituent Assembly.’[4] Further, it was observed in the case of Union of India v. Madangopal[5]–

“Our Constitution as appears from the Preamble, derives its authority from the people of India, and learned counsel conceded that it was open to the people to confer on the legislatures established by the Constitution, which they framed through their representatives, power to make laws having operation in relation to periods prior to the commencement of the Constitution.”

Additionally, it establishes a contractual nature of the Indian Constitution; which is a result of the consent of the Indian Citizens underlying it.[6] The very concept that Indian Constitution is a Contract, needs much convincing to be believed in. The Idea of the contractual nature of the Constitution was first given by Lysander Spooner; who quotes

“The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man.”[7]

On this principle he works out a contour, where he concocts that if a Constitution is a contract, similarly it shall be applicable to the persons who were present then when the contract was being made e.g., when the American Constitution was being framed in the 1776, this contract shall be applicable only to the citizens of America present at that time. Similarly, the Indian constitution which was drafted in 1950 is applicable to the citizens living at that time.

But the point of difference between a Contract and a Constitution comes in due to the compulsory nature of the latter as compared to the voluntary nature of the former. This is what John Locke called it as tacit consent to the citizenship.[8]As it is a pre-requisite for the formation of  the Contract, that both the parties must have given their voluntary consent to the agreement; the same is not case with the Indian Constitution, as explained by John Locke in his “two treatise of Civil Government.”

Tacit Consent to the Contract

The very idea behind the concept of tacit consent to the Constitution was first evolved by John Locke, where he has styled that by taking birth in a particular country and by using its amenities we are impliedly agreeing to its suzerainty. The traces of which can be found in section 8 of the Indian Contract Act 1872; which specifically provides that a contract can be entered either by performing the condition or by receiving the consideration, therefore, our taking birth on the Indian soil and using its amenities has qualified us to be a party to this Contract we call Constitution.

The trespasser Obligation

Another theory which compels us to the obligatory nature of the Constitution is the concept of Trespasser obligation, under which the person trespassing the land of the owner is liable to follow his orders or else he shall be liable for trespassing, similarly by taking birth on the land of India, we are somewhere trespassing on the land of Indian Government, therefore are suzerainty is subject to Indian Sovereignty.

[1]  Sauvik. Chakraverti, The Essentials Frederic Bastiat, Liberty Institute, 2007, Bastiat was a great supporter of human liberty and was of the view that it was the collective force of the human society which gives the Law its force.

[2]  Keshavanada Bharti v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 SCC 225, see also Behram Khurshid v. The State of Bombay AIR 1955 SC 123

[3]  Constituent Assembly Debates, Vol. 1, 13th Dec. 1946, The resolution moved by Jawahar Lal Nehru on the the aims and object of the Indian Constitution.

[4]  A.K Gopalan v. State of Madras, AIR 1950 SC 27: 1950 SCR 88 per MAHAJAN, J.

[5]  Union of India v. Madan Gopal, (1954) SCR 541 (655).

[6]  Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of no authority, Free Patriot press, U.S.A, 1867, the philosopher put forward the idea; that the constitution is only enforceable on the people who were living at the time when (Spooner, 1867)the constitution was made; he was an absolute believer on the contractual nature of the contract

[7]   Id. Pg 3

[8]   John Locke, Two treatise of the Civil Government, ed. Thomas Hollis (London: A. Millar et al., 1764). John Locke said by living under the suzerainty of a particular nation, we have given them our tacit consent to be their citizenship. See also Thomas Hobbes’ ‘Social Contract’ 1651, where he regarded as a single contract whih led to the offspring of state and devolution of the power by the people in the Levithian ruler whereas, John Locke in his Social Contract of 1689 was of the view that there were two contract, first by which the people organized themselves and by the second contract they surrendered their right to the sovereign King.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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ASHIT KUMAR SRIVASTAVA

Ashit Kumar Srivastava (AKS) is currently working as an Assistant Professor at Amity University, Lucknow. His main area of interest is Constitution and Jurisprudence. However, he mostly inter-relates various socio-legal topics together.

A Need to Define Limits to Constitutional Change

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Constitutional reform, progressively known as constitutional change[1] in recent times, is an act of the state that results in a change in the constitutional text of the nation. Undoubtedly, there is a dire need of regular changes to a constitution keeping in view the ever-dynamic nature of the law as well as society. Also, almost all the constitutions[2] across the globe realise the necessity of a carefully designed well-defined process[3] therefor.

However, the debate arises when the question concerns the limit to which such changes can be made. The Constitution of a country undoubtedly provides the basic foundations for the building of political, economic, and legal systems thereof; and changes to the constitution may have serious effects on those, sometimes a detrimental one.

There arises a proposition that apart from providing a carefully crafted process for such constitutional changes, there must be some underlying rule or principle governing the limit to such changes. And, since the limits cannot be set by statutory means,[4] there must be underlying doctrines to serve the same.

Time and again various supreme courts have observed the necessity to define limits to constitutional change and have manifested their observations by laying down doctrines.[5] Also, sometimes the doctrines have been created out of the court rooms.[6] And in both the cases, there lies a belief at the root of this that there must be a limit to the constitutional change.

Putting limits to constitutional change seems of utmost importance when we look at the case of Turkey’s Constitutional Reform recently. Last December, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) unveiled a raft of proposed constitutional changes that may consequentially change the parliamentarian form of governance into a presidential one. Although it may seem that it has chances of ensuring stability in the governance, the chance of a one-man rule also cannot be denied.

In an ideal democracy, an unfettered power to change the constitution may be a thing of unanimous acceptance; but the case is different when there’s constantly a dark power play between parties and persons. Lack of limits to constitutional change always instils a fear of tyranny of the majority.

Noted Indian judge Hidyatullah J. observed the same when deciding for a case of similar nature in the Supreme Court of India.[7] Fundamental provisions like Fundamental Rights and Personal liberty, in his words, cannot be a plaything of the majority. Lack of any limit to constitutional changes may create occasions where the basic ideologies and fundamental provisions are treated as the plaything of the majority party in the parliament.

Apart from practical theories like the abovementioned, there also exists theoretical doctrines necessitating for limits to the constitutional change. Some doctrines, exploring the nature of the constitutional amendment power, conclude the same to be a sui generis power that rests within a spectrum between the constituent power and the ordinary legislative power. Drawing on the French Doctrine distinguishing pouvoir constituant originaire and pouvoir constituent derive, a further conclusion is drawn that the amendment power is a delegated ‘secondary constituent power’, authorised by ‘the people’s primary constituent power’.[8]

There are a number of similar arguments on the need and inherency of limits to constitutional change. The foundational structuralism argument contends that there are basic features of every constitution that make up a specific constitutional identity and a hierarchy of constitutional values beyond the reach of the delegated amendment power.[9] The basic structure doctrine developed by the Indian Supreme Court holds a somewhat similar view regarding unamendability of certain provisions.

Every power must come with its own set of limits, for limitless power opens door to tyranny, dictatorship, and corruption. Be it the foundational structuralism, the constitutional essentialism, or the basic structure doctrine, there must be set well-defined limits to constitutional change so as to prevent the constitution from being a plaything of the majority.

[1] The UK parliament has expressed the view that the term ‘constitutional change’ is to be used rather than the term ‘constitutional reform’ as the latter necessitates a positive stroke in the change. Read the full text here: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201012/ldselect/ldconst/177/17704.htm

[2] Constitutions of various countries contain provisions as to how the constitutional changes will take place. For example, Article V of the American Constitution, Article 368 of the Indian Constitution etc.

[3] A well-defined process is of utmost importance as observed by many scholars and cited in many reports. See Constitution Committee, 8th Report (2010-2011): Fixed term parliament bills (HL Paper 69), para 160, UK

[4] Constitution being the supreme law, must lay down the limits and principles for itself. However, providing specific rules regarding the same will be practically of no use as they too are vulnerable of being amended/changed. Alternatively, extra-strict or rigid provisions regarding the limit also seems unreasonable owing to the constant factor of change in the national as well as global scenario.

[5] For example, the Indian Supreme Court has laid down the ‘Basic Structure Doctrine’ in the case of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala.

[6] The doctrine of Constitutional Essentialism by John Rawls is a burning example of such cases. Although the doctrine of Constitutional Essentialism has not been approved yet by the US Supreme Court, still the effect of the same on the American Constitutional Law cannot be denied.

[7] Sajjan Singh v. State of Rajastan, 1965 AIR 845, IN

[8] Yaniv Roznai, Chapter 4, Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments: The Limits of Amendment Powers, Oxford University Press, 2017

[9] Ibid.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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ANSHUMAN SAHOO

‘Passionate!’ That’s the only word he uses to describe himself. Questioning assumptions. Challenging hypocrisies. Making the planet a better place to live in. Can be found at http://www.anshumansahoo.in.

Examining the prospect of placing a reservation bill for the Jats under the ninth schedule

Posted in Constitution of India, Constitutional LawTagged , 1 Comment

This note is geared towards examining the possibilities of whether a reservation bill which aims at placing the reservation above the 50% guideline (M.R. Balaji vs. State of Mysore AIR 1963 SC 649[1] ) can be brought in by placing it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution of India and thereby escaping the ambit of Judicial Review.

We begin with examining as to what constitutes the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

NINTH SCHEDULE OF THE CONSTITUTION

Instated by the very first amendment to the constitution on 10 May 1951 to address judicial decisions and pronouncements espe­cially about the chapter on fundamental rights under the dais of the Nehuruvian Regime. The intent behind it was very clear, the state in a bid to pursue nationalization wanted to take the excessive land from the Zamindars and redistribute it amongst the Socio-economic backward classes.

Despite having architected the Constitution, Nehru was not confident that the laws made to pursue these special interests of the state would stand up to judicial scrutiny on account of being discriminatory.

The 1st Amendment[2] that brought in Articles 31A and 31B[3] conferring upon the state the right to make laws to acquire private property and to deem such laws as not being discriminatory and to further protect all such laws from any judicial review by creating something called the Ninth Sched­ule.

Since this very First amendment, the Ninth Schedule has been relied upon to amend the constitution multiple times over. The 4th amendment[4] inserted six acts to the 9th schedule. The 17th amendment[5] added 44 more acts. The 29th amendment[6] brought in 2 acts from Kerala. The 34th amendment[7] in 1974 added 20 more land tenure and land reforms laws enacted by the states.

More specific to our area of Interest would be the 76th Amendment[8] (1994) to accommodate Tamil Nadu Government’s legislation to provide for reservations to the level of 69 percent for SC/ST and OBCs followed. What takes the cake, however, is the 78th amendment[9], which was about not just immunity to laws in the Ninth Schedule, which was suspect, but amendments to those laws and making those amendments immune.

The above-stated circumstance gives us a glimmer of opportunity and hope that in the case of reservation for the Jat Community there too might be the possibility of keeping the reservation bill in the Ninth Schedule without being brought into question under the ambit of  Judicial Review.

PRESENT POSITION OF LAW

However in wake of the Supreme Court’s Ruling in the matter of  I.R.Coelho vs. State Of Tamil Nadu & Ors AIR 2007 SC 861[10], it was held that all laws (including those in the Ninth Schedule) would be open to Judicial Review if they violated the basic structure of the constitution. Chief Justice of India, Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal noted, “If laws put in the Ninth Schedule abridge or abrogate fundamental rights resulting in violation of the basic structure of the constitution, such laws need to be invalidated.” 

The Supreme Court judgment laid that the laws placed under Ninth Schedule after April 24, 1973 shall be open to challenge in court if they violated fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19, 20 and 21 of the Constitution[11].

Impact of the Judgment:

The Judgment ended up the controversy behind the Ninth Schedule largely and was successful to put a bar on political intentions of keeping certain sensitive issues out of the reach of Judicial Review for narrow political gains. The landmark judgment was successful in strengthening the demo­cratic base of the society and bringing into the realm of justice, unfair acts of misuse of the provision of the ninth schedule in the Constitution.

Applicability In The Present Scenario:

In the past few decades states of the likes of  Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh have crossed the 50% reservation benchmark. More specifically one can look at the case of Rajasthan, whereby the reservation count has gone as high as 68%  (13%- economically backward classes and 5% for Gujjars) in terms of Jobs and education. but all of this has been put on hold by the High Court rejecting because of its infringement of the 50% rule. The state ultimately has been left hoping that the Central government brings out a direct amendment to the constitution under The amending power (constituent power) of Parliament as contained in the Constitution (Articles 245, 246, 248[12]) which gave it the power to make laws (plenary legislative power)

However as laid down in the landmark ruling of  Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 SCC 225[13] Previously, the Supreme Court had held that the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution was unfettered. However, the Court adjudicated that while Parliament has “wide” powers, it did not have the power to destroy or emasculate the basic elements or fundamental features of the constitution.

Further as stated above in the 2007 matter[14], laws attacking the basic doctrine of the constitution would be under the ambit of judicial review. This matter too contends with Art. 15 &16[15] under the Right to Equality of the Fundamental Rights. Which would naturally predispose it to be under the ambit of the basic Doctrine of the constitution.

Thus in a scenario, an attempt to put the reservation bill under the Ninth Schedule would not serve any purpose for the Courts are well within the power to examine and more potently reject these legislations for the endanger the basic structure of the Constitution. A similar premise would be the basis of  any sort of rejection of the Parliamentary amendments.

[1] M.R. Balaji vs. State of Mysore AIR 1963 SC 649

[2] 1st Amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1951)

[3] Articles 31A and 31B Of The Constitution of India

[4] 4th amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1955)

[5] 17th amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1964)

[6] 29th amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1971)

[7] 34th Amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1974)

[8] 76th Amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA (1994)

[9] 78th Amendment To The CONSTITUTION OF INDIA ( 1995)

[10]  I.R.Coelho vs. State Of Tamil Nadu & Ors AIR 2007 SC 861

[11] Articles 14, 19, 20 and 21 of the Constitution OF INDIA

[12] Articles 245, 246, 248 Of The Constitution of India

[13] Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 SCC 225

[14] Id. at 9                                         0

[15] Articles 15 &16 Of The Constitution of India

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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DHRUV SHEKHAR

Dhruv Shekhar is at present a law student at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), having studied History before at St. Stephens College. Intrinsically passionate about the Films, Books and Football, he seeks to examine and study his interests within the ambit of the legalities concerned with the said subject matter.

UNIFORM CIVIL CODE- Is the time still not ripe?

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Art 44 lays down a very significant directive principle of state policy- “State shall endeavour to secure for its citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India”. However, although directive principles are guiding stars of our constitution, they are not enforceable in court.

Citizens of India are governed by a variety of personal laws in matters of marriage, divorce, succession etc. Now, the question that arises is ‘Why can’t Indians stand on an equal footing in civil matters like marriage, divorce etc even after 68 years of independence? It is absolutely absurd to find that polygamy (the practice of a man to have more than one wife at a time) is legal amongst Muslims but an offence amongst other religious communities.

Uniform civil code is the only way to ensure that everyone has progressive standards of law to abide by equality in standards of justice. It is necessary to have a common code of law wherein all the traditions are harmonised in consonance with the modern times and applied uniformly to each and every Indian.

Judiciary has time and again given a clear indication to the legislature that uniform civil code is the need of the hour. There are several case laws to consolidate and support this argument.

In Jordan Diengheh v S.S. Chopra case the issue of different divorce laws under different religions was addressed and analysed. A Christian lady has married a Sikh man under Christian Marriage Act 1872. A few years later she had filed a petition for declaration of nullity of marriage and judicial separation under Indian Divorce Act.

However, a single bench of HC rejected this prayer of nullity of marriage and granted judicial separation. The division bench affirmed this decision on appeal. On special leave to appeal SC analysed that divorce laws under all the personal laws are far from uniform. The differences among the couple were irreconcilable but due to lack of required provisions for grant of divorce in Indian Divorce Act, the couple had no choice but to continue the meaningless marriage. The court once again observed this as a case that focused on the compulsive need of UCC. There was a need to consider mutual consent as a ground of divorce in all divorce acts in order to provide for a way out to such unhappy couples. Mutual consent was inserted as a ground of divorce in Indian Divorce Act in 2001.

Whenever UCC is discussed the case that remains is the Shah Bano case. The Supreme Court had and very rightly given the decision that Shah Bano was entitled to maintenance under Section 125 of CrPc. But subject to the growing protests from the Muslim community this decision had to be struck down.

However, the depressing part is that the debate on UCC has got trapped in politics. Instead of reaching out to a consensus, it has become a blame game played by different political parties.

As observed by Supreme court in Sarla Mudgal’s case, the implementation of Uniform Civil Code is imperative for the protection of the oppressed and the helpless women, who are suffering only and only in the name of religion. There is no logical connection between religion and personal law in a civilised society.  Years after the Shah Bano case, the case that came to the picture was the Shayara Banu case. In 2015, she was divorced by her husband who gave her triple talaq for no such justifiable reasons. She was tortured relentlessly and in her entire married life tolerated this torture just due to the fear of being “triple talaqued” by her husband. But at last her fears came true.

In 1954, when the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal  Nehru was asked as to why UCC hasn’t been implemented yet, he replied that the time is not ripe to make it come to force. It is rather interesting to note that today even after 68 years of independence the time does not seem to be ripe. How long are we going to wait for such numerous Shah Banos or Shayra Banus or Sarla Mudgars to suffer????

Therefore, the time has arrived that we adopt one nation one statute policy. If the same law of contract or torts applies to a Hindu or Muslim, why not the same law of marriage?

Hence top here with this I stop my pen just with the hope that we all rise above politics and lead India towards a better nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Krupa Thakkar

KRUPA THAKKAR

Krupa Thakkar is currently pursuing BLS LLB from Government Law College, Mumbai. She is presently in her second year. Always eager to learn new things, she keeps herself updated with happenings around the world. Though not an extrovert, she makes sure that she performs the best whenever she is allotted any task.