Uniform Civil Code In Contemporary India: Constitutional Challenges And Implications Of The Uttarakhand Legislation

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Anshika Tomar, Amity Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity Law School, Noida

ABSTRACT

Uniform Civil Code, known as “UCC” is a directive principle mentioned in our Constitution which is enshrined under Part IV Article 44. It states that “the state shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory in India.” The framers deliberately put UCC in the Directive principles because at the time of Independence we were not equipped with the administrative machinery and people were scared to lose their freedom of religion as there were many misconceptions about the same however today, after 78 years of independence UCC is still considered as a tool to take away the freedom of religion. There are many issues that revolves around the Implementation of UCC which are regarding people’s faith, marriage, adoption, live in relationships and privacy concerns which comes with compulsory registration under UCC, whether judicial review should be done or not, under Article 14, 21, 25,26,27 and 28, people will be governed by same law and not their own personal laws which brings us to the main concern that majority’s law will be imposed upon the minority, however if implemented in true constitutional essence, it will not impose the majority law, instead of rights first approach should be taken instead of uniformity, Article 44 should be read with Article 14, 21, 25, 28. The Uttarakhand legislation which came into force on “27 January, 2025”, known as “The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act, 2024” is the first ever steps towards achieving uniformity and shows that each state can implement their own UCC until a center level UCC is achieved. There are still gaps concerning privacy and fragmented uniformity due to different states implementing their own UCC. Thus, this research paper aims to identify those gaps and examine the implications of the Uttarakhand legislation along with some suggestions.

Keywords: Religious Freedom, live in relationship, personal laws, judicial review, Uniform Civil Code Act, 2024, fragmented uniformity

309. UNIFORM CIVIL CODE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA- CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES AND IMPLICATIONS

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