NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday remarked that the only way to ensure equal rights to all women in the country is to bring in a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) across India.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, and Justices R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi, was hearing a batch of pleas alleging violation of women's rights under the succession laws under Muslim personal law (Shariat).
"It is true that a large section of the Muslim society is deprived of equal inheritance rights but if the inheritance provision of Sharia Law is struck down, then what law should govern the inheritance? The answer, as correctly said, is the Uniform Civil Code. The only way to ensure equal rights to all women in the country is to bring in a Uniform Civil Code across India," the court said.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Prashant Bhushan argued that personal law relating to inheritance will not be protected under Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. He submitted that inheritance is a civil right and cannot be considered an essential religious practise.
"We cannot have a situation in the country now after the Shayara Bano judgment, that Muslim women will not have the same rights as Muslim men," Bhushan said.
The court, however, acknowledged that there were so many asymmetries in different societies, including the tribals, and questioned the petitioners as to whether these can be struck down by the SC.
During the course of the hearing, the court observed that the rule of 'one wife for one man' is not being uniformly applied to all communities.
"But does that mean that the Court can declare all bigamous marriages as unconstitutional? So we have to defer to legislative power to bring the directive principles in effect," Justice Bagchi said, adding that "it is best to defer it to legislative wisdom."
"This court has already recommended to the legislature to enact a Uniform Code," he added.
The bench also added that judicial intervention would be advisable in a petition filed by Muslim women themselves. To this, Bhushan replied that some of the petitioners are Muslim women.
Hearing these submissions, the court asked him to amend the petition to include the suggestions as to what should be the remedies in case the Shariat inheritance provisions are struck down.
The bench deferred the matter for further hearing to another date after Bhushan agreed to amend the petition.