UNIFORM CIVIL CODE (UCC)

UNIFORM CIVIL CODE (UCC)

TOPIC: Polity

Context- Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s announced that the BJP, if voted to power, will form a committee to prepare a draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the State.

Concept-

UCC in States:

• UCC is one that would provide for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption etc.
• Goa’s Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 is an example of a common family law prevalent in a State.
• The promulgation of the UCC emerges as a positive obligation and not duty of the State under Article 44 of the Constitution in the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).
• Article 44 says “the State shall endeavour to secure a UCC for the citizens throughout the territory of India”.

Does “State” in Article 44 mean the Union or the States?

• Technically, Article 12 of the Constitution defines the “State” to include the Union and State governments, Parliament and State Legislatures, and even local authorities.
• Besides, entry five of the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution empowers both the Union and States to make laws on marriage, divorce, infants, minors, adoption, wills, intestacy and succession.
• The Jose Paulo Coutinho judgment of the court in 2019, in fact, found Goa a “shining example of an Indian State which has a UCC”.
• However, Supreme Court advocate Kaleeswaram Raj argues that promulgation of a UCC by an individual State may clash with Central statutes governing marriage and succession.