Supreme Court asked the government to file a copy of the report of a committee that is inquiring into personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody. Unsurprisingly, the uniform civil code (UCC) debate has been revived. The nationalists want a UCC to further their cultural majoritarian project. They cite the directive in Article 44 of the Constitution requiring the state to “endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code”. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) sees the continued existence of Muslim personal law as a symbol of a distinct Indian Muslim identity and an area of law with divine sanction and, therefore, beyond the purview of temporal government. It uses the constitutional guarantee of the “right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.
Between these intransigent outposts stands the baffled liberal citizen. She worries about the AIMPLB’s indifference to another constitutional right in Article 15, which prohibits the state from discrimination on the grounds of sex, and rejects the claimed divine immunity because it is contrary to public reason. She is also skeptical of the Hindu right’s hypocritical use of the anti-discrimination argument, given its predilection to enforce gender norms and indifference to the discriminatory tax implications of the Hindu Undivided Family. Often forgotten are nuanced interventions by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, Awaaz-e-Niswaan, and countless individual litigants.
Source - http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-trap-of-personal-laws-uniform-civil-code-aimplb-supreme-court-2775249/
