Uniform Civil Code is a matter dealt with by Article 44 which directs the State to attempt to secure a uniform civil code for all its citizens.
The Honourable Apex Court on March 29, 2023, dismissed multiple petitions, most of them i.e., four filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay is the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a lawyer. A single public interest litigation was filed by Lubna Qureshi and Doris Martin respectively.
These petitions sought uniform civil laws that must be gender and religion-neutral for all citizens concerning matters related to marriage, adoption, succession, inheritance, maintenance, and divorce.
The honourable Court enunciated it did not wish to entertain the petitions under Article 32 or ask for Law Commission’s consideration in the respective matter. The Bench consisted of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha, and Justice J.B. Pardiwala. The Court made it precise that a “writ of mandamus cannot be issued to legislate and it is not for the Court to direct the Legislature.” Instead, Advocate Ashwini was asked by the Court to approach the Law Commission directly.
The Centre disapproved of all the pleas. The centre made it unambiguous that it advocates the policy of the ‘Uniform Civil Code’ and it is under consideration by Law Commission but believes that this comes under the domain of Parliament and is not a matter to be dealt with by Judiciary. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta proclaimed the same in his statement.
Muslim Personal Law Board and other Muslim bodies also got involved in the case. It was brought up by them that Advocate Upadhyay had not appeared before the Court with innocence as he had hided facts that he had alike petitions earlier put forward before the High Court of Delhi requesting for setting up an Expert Committee/Judicial Commission to draft a UCC (Article 44) which is still pending. Moreover, he filed for a similar petition before the apex court which was withdrawn before the respective petition that was being heard.
The case in which the above-mentioned rulings of the Supreme Court came was: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. UOI and Ors. WP© No. 869/2020.
Uniform civil laws are certainly the need of the hour and the same was asked for in the pleas put up before the honourable Court, which were rejected respecting the principle of separation of powers.
Written by Sonakshi Misra, 2nd year (4th semester) B.A.LL.B. Hons. student at Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Legal Studies, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
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