UCC petition: Uttarakhand HC issues notice to state, Centre; seeks reply within 6 weeks
On January 27 this year, Uttarakhand became the first state in India to implement the Uniform Civil Code.
The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday issued notices to the state government and the Centre, seeking their responses within six weeks on a writ petition that challenged various provisions of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), implemented in the state on January 27.
The division bench of chief justice G Narendar and justice Ashish Naithani issued the notices while hearing the petition filed by Dehradun-based Almasuddin Siddiqui and Haridwar-based Ikram.
“We have pleaded before the court that the law prescribed in the Quran and its verses is an essential religious practice for every Muslim. UCC prescribes the procedure for religious matters which is absolutely contrary to the verses of the Quran. We have pleaded that to remain a Muslim, a person has to follow the Quran and its Verses,” Kartikey Hari Gupta, the counsel for the petitioners, told the bench.
Gupta said that “following the verses of the Quran is a mandatory practice for a Muslim and by making a civil law, the state government cannot direct a Muslim person to do anything which is contrary to the verses of Quran”.
“For example, the Iddat period for a divorced woman is mandatory for a Muslim woman and by ending the same, by UCC, the religious practice of Muslims has been violated,” he said.
“We have further pleaded before the court that UCC is in violation of Article 25 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees the freedom of practice and profession of religion,” Gupta said.
The counsel said the petitioners also told the court that UCC violates Article 245 of the Constitution of India because it is a state law having extra-territorial jurisdiction.
“We have also challenged the mandatory registration of live-in relationships, and the penal punishment provided in the absence of the same. This is in violation of the Right to Privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” Gupta said.
Further, the petitioner has also pleaded that UCC violates the Preamble of the Constitution as the Preamble guarantees liberty of faith, expression, belief and worship.
“After hearing the petition, the HC issued notices to the state government and Centre and granted them six weeks’ time to file responses,” he added.
The petition stressed that UCC creates “an arbitrary and artificial discrimination, impermissible in law, amongst citizens by not applying it to the Scheduled Tribes” and such UCC “is not a Uniform Civil Code as directed under Article 44 of the Constitution of India, hence, deserves to be declared void”.
On January 27 this year, Uttarakhand became the first state in India to implement the Uniform Civil Code. The law makes it obligatory for live-in partners within the state, whether they are residents of Uttarakhand or not, to register their relationship with the registrar within whose jurisdiction they are living. It also applies to the residents of Uttarakhand who reside outside the state. The provisions will also apply in the cases where one of the partners is a foreign national and the other is a resident of Uttarakhand.
