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Synopsis

The Supreme Court was informed today that the government is considering a draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

During the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also recently emphasized the longstanding support of the judiciary for a "secular civil code".  His remarks aligned with his earlier statements from the Independence Day address on August 15, where he portrayed the UCC as a means to replace what he termed the current “communal civil code,” which he argued discriminates based on religion.

UCC refers to a common set of laws for regulating these aspects like marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession, adoption etc for different communities.

As the court took up a matter today pertaining to a Muslim seeking to be governed by Succession Act, the court was told by ASG Aishwarya Bhati, "Government is looking into UCC, we dent' know if it will come or not..Parliament will take a call..".

"You file a counter as we have already issued notice on this..", a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra went on to direct ASG Bhati.

In April this year, the Supreme Court of India had issued notice in a plea seeking a declaration that a born but non-believer Muslim, has a choice to seek a declaration from the ‘prescribed authority’ under Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, that they may no longer be governed by the Sharia law.

Filed by one Safiya PM, the petition further seeks a declaration that a non-believer Muslim will be governed by the provisions of Indian Succession Act, 1925, in the case of intestate and testamentary succession for her lineal descendant.

Safiya, who has challenged the inheritance laws, told the CJI led bench on the last date of hearing, "There is no provision if we do not want to be governed by sharia law. My father is a non-believer and he does not want to follow this..".

"We cannot give declarations on personal laws like this...you can challenge shariat law and we will deal with it. How can we direct that a non-believer be governed by Indian succession act? this cannot be done under Article 32...", the bench had observed.

It has thus been sought that even after leaving Islam and obtaining a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate from the authority, Safiya shall be entitled to inherit her parental property.

Court was told that the petitioner, a born Muslim woman to a non-practising Muslim father, who has not officially left the religion, was facing the peculiar problem in protecting her precious civil rights.

It is Safiya's case for a declaration that she shall not be governed by Muslim Personal Law for any of the matters listed in section 2 or 3 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, but there is no provision either in the Act or in the Rules wherein she can obtain such a certificate. This is a clear vacuum in the statute which can be plugged by judicial interpretation, she has said.

Case Title: Safiya PM vs. Union of India