Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on June 27 mirrors a Law Ministry affidavit filed in the Supreme Court months ago, which said that “citizens belonging to different religions and denominations following different property and matrimonial laws is an affront to the nation’s unity”.
Article 44 of the Constitution enjoins upon the State to endeavour to secure to its citizens a UCC.
In 2019, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court had exhorted the state to “endeavour” and bring the common code. It had referred to the failure of succeeding governments to “secure” the UCC for its citizens despite the codification of the Hindu law in 1956. The court had said that “despite the exhortations of this court in the case of Shah Bano in 1985, the government has done nothing to bring the Uniform Civil Code”. The Shah Bano case, which upheld a Muslim women’s right to maintenance, was considered a step in the direction of implementation of the UCC.
