UNIFORM CIVIL CODE IN INDIA – A DISTANT DREAM

Introduction
In India there had never been an Indian personal Law. Instead there are several personal laws,
applicable to various religious communities i.e the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Parsees.
Each of this is known as the personal law of the particular community and covers matters of personal
relationship like marriage, adoption, inheritance and succession, maintenance and guardianship. Two
major personal laws in India are the Hindu and the Muslim. Like most personal laws they are linked
with religion and customary practices. The Constitution enjoins upon the state to ‘secure for the
citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India’. When the constitution was made many
members were obsessed with the idea of national integration, therefore the debate on Uniform Civil
Code has ever since not stopped.
In the past there have been several cases of Muslim women who have been voicing against the
vice of triple talaq, since 1976, fighting cases right up to the Supreme Court, such as Bia Tahira, Zohra
Kahatoon, Shaha Bano, Shamim Ara, Iqbal Bano, Shamima Farooqi. The latest among many Muslim
Women voicing against the most controversial practice of ‘talaq, talaq, talaq, are Shyara Bano and
Afreen Rehman who have moved the Supreme Court recently.
A Divisional Bench of Justice Anil Dave and A.K. Goyal entertaining her plea on February 29,
2016, issued notice in a petition filled by Shyra Bano from Uttarakhand. Shyra Bano`s petition stated
that she was subject to cruelty and Dowry demand from her husband. She also alleged that she was
given drugs for memory loss, in the result for which she became crtically ill, and at the point of time
her husband divorced her by triple talaq.2
In addition to challenging the divorce deed, the petitioner has challenged the constitutional
validity of s.2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariayat) APPLICATION Act 1937, in so far as it
seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq (talaq – e – bidat) and nikah halala. She has
also challenged the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act.1939 in so far as it fails to provide, Indian
Muslim women with protection from bigamy. Similarly in the case of Jaipur, Afreen Rehman, the
Supreme Court has recent issued notice to her husband, the Entre , the Ministry of Law and Justice
and the All India Muslim Personal law Board to give their replies within 30 days