State was responding to PIL by petitioners Almasuddin Siddiqui and Ikram, who said UCC violated fundamental rights of Muslims & other citizens as guaranteed under the Constitution.
4 panellists participated in a session on democracy & equality. They warned that fundamental rights remain 'constrained by the state power' & said India is a democracy 'in retreat'.
With regard to divorce, the UCC brings in provisions that penalise extrajudicial divorce modes—including talaq-us-sunnat, talaq-i-biddat, khula, maba'arat, and zihar.
The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code fails to make itself modern by reinforcing the colonial provision for restitution of conjugal rights—the requirement to cohabit with one’s partner on court's order.
UUCC's criminalisation of failure to register live-in relationships and various customary religious practices will particularly impact interfaith and inter-caste couples.
The UUCC is a missed chance for the state to have undertaken the task of actually reforming and streamlining the law of succession for Hindus while aligning it with modern socio-legal realites.
The UCC’s part on live-in relationships, added almost as an afterthought, introduces a novel unwanted concept of “parental consent” into consensual adult intimacy.
UCC makes it mandatory for those in live-in relationships to notify registrar under whose jurisdiction they live, stipulates jail term of up to 3 months, or fine up to Rs 10,000 or both.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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