The administration gave its position to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, which decided to examine the reform of personal laws during its 2021–22 term.
According to the notice, the committee has decided to have a larger consultation on the problem and has invited memoranda expressing thoughts and proposals from the relevant parties interested in the subject.
28 individuals constitute the committee, which is led by BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi; 7 are from the Rajya Sabha and 21 from the Lok Sabha.
According to the notice, anyone who wants to send a memo to the committee must do so within 21 days of the communiqué’s release. The Committee has further noted that, in addition to filing memoranda, those who wish to appear before the committee for the purpose of offering oral evidence may do so with explicit notice.
It has been made clear that the Committee’s conclusion on this matter is conclusive. The Senior Advocates Vivek K. Tankha, Mahesh Jethmalani, and P. Wilson are among the 31 Rajya Sabha members that serve on the Committee.
Different personal laws are applied to other religious communities in other parts of the country. For instance, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 is applicable to Christians; the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is applicable to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs; the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 is applicable to Parsi-related matters; and the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat Application), 1937 is applicable to Muslims in personal matters.
The State shall endeavour to provide for the citizens a uniform civil code across the territory of India, according to Article 44 of the Constitution, which is included in Part IV of the Constitution that deals with Directive Principles of State Policy.
The uniform civil code problem has been the focus of lengthy political discussions and judicial review; it also appears in the BJP’s election platform. A state government may introduce a state law, but only Parliament may enact a national law because family and succession laws fall under the concurrent jurisdiction of the centre and states.
