Uniform Civil Code in India

Uniform civil code in India is the debate to replace the personal laws based on the
scriptures and customs of each major religious community in the country with a
common set governing every citizen. These laws are distinguished from public law
and cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. Article 44 of
the Directive Principles in India sets its implementation as duty of the State. Apart
from being an important issue regarding secularism in India, it became one of the
most controversial topics in contemporary politics during the Shah Bano case in
1985. The debate then focused on the Muslim Personal Law, which is partially based
on the Sharia law and remains unreformed since 1937, permitting unilateral divorce
and polygamy in the country.
Need for a Uniform Civil Code in India:
A uniform civil law is in many ways at the heart of the secular political system. How
is a uniform law to be introduced in a society that has been regulated for ages by
parallel systems of 'personal' law? This difficulty was seen as early as during
Macaulay's time when he argued the need for uniform lex loci in India. While the
Law Commissions, initiated by Macaulay, were able to unify criminal law, hopes of
the regulation of Civil Law were not readily realized. Smith is rather optimistic when
he says (p 134): "There is a good chance that 20 years from now, many of the
anomalies will have disappeared. It is reasonable to expect that, by that time, there
will be a uniform civil code; that Hindu and Muslim law, as such, will have ceased to
exist"
It is believed that a common civil code will undoubtedly impose uniformity and thus
hasten national integration. Also, there are luminaries who have argued that a
common civil code will help break down those customary practices harmful to
women and give women individual identity as independent citizens of India. To the
fear that such a code would imperil religious freedom, Justice Seth, the first woman
Chief Justice, has this answer: A uniform civil code will not take away the right to
perform religious ceremonies and rituals; but would any woman object to a code
that gives her equal property rights, protection from polygamy and arbitrary
divorce, and the right to adopt and the right to inheritance even if her father or
husband converts to another religion?
In the aftermath of the Shah Bano controversy, the scholar-activist, Vasudha
Dhagamwar, wrote a short book, published by the Indian Law Institute,
entitled Towards the Uniform Civil Code.
As Dhagamwar points out, "the legal maze [in India] is bewildering enough without
retaining a wide permutation and combination of laws which create rights [for]
some and take them [from] another depending on their religion".

Once we realize that Article 44 is in the Directive Principles of State Policy and the
Directive Principles of State Policy are fundamental in governance of the country,
we need not spend time on the question whether we should have a uniform civil
code or not. There is a directive and that directive binds us all and that directive
being fundamental we have to accept the position as realists and positivists that a
uniform civil code is one of the desiderata of the Constitution.

References:
1. Letters to the Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, September 11, 2004
http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2004_39/37/Uniform_Civil_Code.pdf
2. Ramchandra Guha, April 18, 2015, Reviving the dead letter- Why liberals
must support a common civil code ,The Telegraph India
3. Vijay Nambiar, June 6, 1964, India: How Secular?, The Economic Weekly.
4. Ramchandra Guha, Towards a gender sensitive civil code, Hindustan Times