Uniform Civil Code And The Right To Marry: Myth, Reality, And Constitutional Limits

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Mr. Tanishq Bidhuri, LLM (Family Law), AIALS, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

ABSTRACT

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has occupied a contested space in Indian constitutional discourse since the founding of the Republic. While Article 44 of the Constitution directs the State to endeavour to secure a uniform civil code for all citizens, the provision has remained an unfulfilled Directive Principle for over seven decades. This article examines the intersection of the UCC debate with the fundamental right to marry — a right judicially recognised under Articles 21, 19, and 25 of the Constitution. It interrogates the myth that a UCC will straightforwardly advance gender equality and national integration, confronts the political realities that have stalled legislative action, and maps the constitutional limits within which any uniform code must operate. Drawing on landmark Supreme Court decisions, international human rights norms, comparative analysis of the Goan Civil Code, and critical socio-legal scholarship, the article argues that the right to marry occupies a protected constitutional space that a future UCC must affirm rather than abridge. The article further contends that the real constitutional challenge lies not in uniformity per se, but in crafting a rights- compliant framework that dismantles patriarchal personal laws across all communities without instrumentalising reform for majoritarian ends.

Keywords: Uniform Civil Code, Right to Marry, Article 44, Secularism, Personal Law, Fundamental Rights, Constitutional Limits, Gender Justice, Religious Freedom

488. UNIFORM CIVIL CODE AND THE RIGHT TO MARRY- MYTH, REALITY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS.p

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