Allahabad High Court urges Centre to implement Uniform Civil Code

The Allahabad High Court has called upon the Central government to initiate the process for of the Uniform Civil Code. The court stated that the Uniform Civil Code “is a necessity and mandatorily required today”.

Justice Suneet Kumar on November 18 said that the UCC “cannot be made ‘purely voluntary’ as was observed by Dr. B.R Ambedkar 75 years back.

The court directed the Centre to consider the constitution of a committee or commission for implementing the mandate of Article 44, as directed by the Supreme Court.

The court further added that a common civil code "will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies".

"No community is likely to bell the cat by making gratuitous concessions on this issue. It is the State which is charged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code for the citizens of the country and, unquestionably, it has the legislative competence to do so,” the court observed.

Justice Kumar made the observations while hearing a bunch of 17 petitions filed by inter-faith couples. The petitioners apprehended threat to their life and liberty at the hands of their parents, relatives and other family members in connivance of the State machinery.