Uniform Civil Code

Two classmates at a law college in Navi Mumbai are getting married in the same month. One marries under the Hindu Marriage Act, the other under a different personal law, and a third friend marries under the Special Marriage Act. Each set of rules treats divorce, maintenance and inheritance a little differently. Should the State replace all of them with one code? Article 44 of the Constitution says the State shall endeavour to secure a uniform civil code, and seventy-five years later the question is still open.

In two minutes

A uniform civil code (UCC) would replace the separate personal laws on marriage, divorce, maintenance, guardianship, adoption and succession with one body of civil rules for all citizens; Article 44 lists it as a goal of State policy, not an enforceable right, and India today has a patchwork in which some family law is already common to all and some still depends on religion.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Family Law – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.