A CODE THAT DIVIDES

The Board of India Today Experts agrees on the need for a coherent civil code but want equality and justice, not uniformity, as its driving principle

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Q. DOES INDIA NEED A UNIFORM CIVIL CODE? IF SO, WHY?

PINKY ANAND: It is a long-overdue move in the right direction—a uniform civil code is critical to balance the preservation of religious and cultural diversity with a consistent legal framework that safeguards everyone’s fundamental rights. The UCC will streamline the implementation of the rule of law over society as a cohesive whole, giving all citizens the same rights and remedies in law. At its core, this is informed by India’s commitment to human dignity, legality and the right of individuals to autonomy. The cohesiveness of a society depends on how the rule of law is imagined and how its ends are attained: it’s a normative need. The hierarchy that gives precedence to religious laws and customs over statutory law renders the dispersion of justice in India fundamentally undemocratic. Personal laws perpetuate colonial edicts that leave citizens—especially women—without remedies to acts that infringe on their natural rights. Dogmatic provisions in personal laws that violate the fundamental rights of women preserve a perennial cycle of patriarchal and religious oppression. This is antithetical to the morality of our Constitution.

Elimination of discriminatory, oppressive practices that endanger the rights of women, such as polygamy and unequal inheritance, is of paramount importance. The harmonisation of laws-a need whose impetus flows from the Directive Principles, and which the Supreme Court has often exhorted us to strive for-will proliferate a system of dignified treatment of women and marginalised communities.