Plea filed in Supreme Court to frame guidelines for uniform grounds of divorce

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court to frame guidelines for uniform grounds of divorce and remove discriminatory procedure prevailing in different communities for being violative of fundamental rights to equality.

BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed the plea seeking 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 plea filed by advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey on behalf of 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 of 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 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. Couple belonging to different religion have to seek divorce under the Special Marriage Act, 1956. If either partner is foreign national then he has to seek divorce under Foreign Marriage Act 1969, he pointed out.

Minimum marriage age, grounds of divorce, custody, guardianship, adoption, maintenance, succession and inheritance, are the secular activities.

Therefore, it is 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 spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21 of the Constitution and International Conventions, the plea stated.