SC notice to Centre on PIL for uniform grounds of maintenance, alimony for all

The plea seeks a direction to the government to take appropriate steps to remove the prevailing anomalies

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government to respond to two separate PILs for uniform grounds for divorce and maintenance and remove discriminatory procedure prevailing in different communities for being violative of fundamental rights to equality.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Centre on two PILs filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

During the hearing, the bench asked senior advocates Pinky Anand and Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the petitioners, "How can we remove discriminatory practices without interfering in personal laws?"

Anand, for her part, said the top court did intervene in the Shayara Bano (by declaring triple talaq unconstitutional) case. The court then said, under Article 146 of the Constitution, the directions given by it will exist till the law are brought in.

Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora said for two years, there is no one to head the Law Commission. "If we look at certain provisions of the Muslim law, then maintenance can go on only for the period of Biddat. The woman is left with nothing," she said.

The petitioner asked the court to frame guidelines for uniform grounds of divorce and remove discriminatory procedure prevailing in different communities.

He sought a direction to the Centre to take apposite steps to remove anomalies in the grounds of divorce and make them uniform for all citizens without prejudice on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Alternatively, he sought a direction to the Law Commission to examine the issue and give its suggestion within three months.

The petitioner contended that different grounds of divorce reinforced patriarchal and stereotypical notions about women.

He said the cause of action arose on September 13, 2019, when the Supreme Court in Jose Paulo Coutinho Case once again pressed the need for uniform civil laws and cited the example of Goa. But the Centre even failed to provide uniform grounds of divorce.

Maintaining that divorce is among the most traumatic misfortunes for men and women, the petitioner said that even after 73 years of independence, divorce procedures continued to remain very complex and were neither gender-neutral nor religion-neutral.

Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains have to seek divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act 1955. Muslim, Christian and Parsis have their own personal laws. Couples belonging to different religion have to seek divorce under the Special Marriage Act, 1956. If either partner is a foreign national then he has to seek divorce under the Foreign Marriage Act 1969, he pointed out.

He added that minimum marriage age, grounds of divorce, custody, guardianship, adoption, maintenance, succession and inheritance, are the secular activities. Therefore, it is the duty of the State to ensure that men and women have uniform age of marriage, grounds of divorce, maintenance and alimony, succession and inheritance, adoption and guardianship in the spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21 of the Constitution and International Conventions, the plea stated.