In a crucial development, the Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider forming a uniform code in matters of divorce laws to remove the anomalies in different personal laws and implement a uniform system.
A three judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising of CJI SA Bobde, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice on two Public Interest Litigations seeking uniformity in the personal laws regulating divorce, maintenance and alimony for Indian citizens.
According to the petitioner, advocate A K Upadhyay, divorce, maintenance and alimony laws in certain religions discriminated and marginalised women. These anomalies, varying from one religion to another, were violative of the right to equality (Article 14 of the Constitution) and right against discrimination (Article 15) on the basis of religion and gender and right to dignity. Upadhyay wanted the laws on divorce, maintenance and alimony to be ‘gender-neutral and religion-neutral’.
The apex court, while expressing ‘great caution’, agreed to examine the plea to frame uniform guidelines on divorce, maintenance and alimony for all religions. It 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.
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?’ Pinky Anand told the court that the plea only sought removal of the personal laws which were violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21. As mentioned by Upadhyay in his petition, even after 73 years of Independence and 70 years of India becoming a socialist secular democratic Republic, laws relating to maintenance and alimony are complex and cumbersome.