SC asks govt to explain stand on Uniform Civil Code

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government to tell if it is willing to bring the Uniform Civil Code in the country, saying there was “total confusion” due to personal laws governing religious practices.

A bench of Justices Vikramjit Sen and Shiva Kurti Singh asked the government to clarify its position on the vexed issue on framing the Uniform Civil Code so that different standards enjoined in various religions could be regulated under the law.

“There is total confusion. We should work on the Uniform Civil Code. What happened to it? If you (government) want to do it then you should do it. Why don’t you frame and implement it,” the bench asked the counsel representing the central government.

The bench put the poser to the government while hearing a petition, challenging the legal provision that forcing Christian couples to wait for at least two years for divorce whereas other religions like the Hindu Marriage Act and the Parsi Marriage and the Special Marriage Act, and Divorce Act prescribed only one year for it.

During the hearing on Monday, the bench asked the government also to explain as when it proposed to pass the amendment.