India has multiplicity of family laws. The Christians have their Christians Marriage Act 1872,
the Indian Divorce Act, 1869 and the Indian Succession Act, 1925. The Jews have their
uncodified customary marriage law and in their succession matters they are governed by the
Succession Act of 1925. The Parsis have their own Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936,
and their own separate law of inheritance contained in the Succession Act which is somewhat
different from the rest of the Succession Act. Hindus and Muslims have their own separate
personal laws. Hindus law by and large has been secularized and modernized by statutory
enactments. On the other hand Muslim law is still primarily unmodified and traditional in its
content and approach. India has set before itself the ideal of a secular society and in that context achievement of a uniform civil code becomes all the more desirable. Such a code will do away with diversity in
matrimonial laws, simplify the Indian legal system and make Indian society more
homogeneous. It will de-link law from religion which is a very desirable objective to achieve
in a secular and socialist pattern of society. It will create a national identity and will help in
containing fissiparous tendencies in the country .The uniform civil code will contain uniform
provisions applicable to every one and based on social justice and gender equality in family
matters.
According to the Committee on the Status of Women in India: “The continuance of various
personal laws which allow discrimination between men and women violate the fundamental
rights and the Preamble to the Constitution which promises to secure to all citizens “equality
of status, and is against the spirit of natural integration”. The Committee recommended
expeditious implementation of the constitutional directive in Article 44 by adopting a Uniform
Civil Code
The uniform civil code has social, political, and religious aspect. The UCC would carve a
balance between protection of fundamental rights and religious dogmas of individuals. It will
be a code, which is just and proper according to a man of ordinary prudence, without any bias
with regards to religious and political considerations. Citizens belonging to different religions
and denominations follow different property and matrimonial laws which is not only affront to
the nation’s unity, but also makes one wonder whether we are sovereign, secular, republic or
loose confederation of feudal states, where people live at the whims and fancies of mullahs bishops and pundits. It is the high time that India had a uniform law dealing with marriage,
divorce, succession, inheritance, and maintenance
