PIL filed in Delhi HC to frame uniform civil code

A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Union of India to frame a uniform civil code to promote fraternity, unity and national integration.

The petition has been filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who is associated with BJP.

The petitioner has sought direction and instruction to government to secure citizens, Justice (social, economic, and political), liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and to promote among them all fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and unity and integrity of the nation.

The petition will be heard by the Division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi on Friday.

The petitioner claims that he submitted a representation to the central government on August 28, 2017, and the Law Commission on April 4, 2018. There is no further requirement to move concerned authority for relief sought in this writ petition again.

The object of Article 44 is to introduce a Uniform Civil Code, which is essential to promote fraternity unity and national integration. It proceeds on the assumption that there is no connection between religion and personal laws in a civilized society.

While the Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and of religion, it seeks to divest religion from personal law and social relations and from laws governing inheritance, succession and marriage, just as it has been done even in the Muslim countries like Turkey and Egypt. The object of Article 44 is not to encroach upon religious liberties guaranteed under Article 25, the petition stated.

The several enactments, which have been made by the Parliament since Independence in the name of the Hindu Code relating to marriage, succession, adoption and guardianship, relate only to Hindus (including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs) and excludes the Muslims, who are the major slice of the minority communities and who are more vociferously objecting to frame a common civil code for all citizens of India, petition further added.