The Supreme Court has asked the Central Government to issue a notice and file an answer while hearing a plea seeking uniform law for every citizen across the country to decide divorce and alimony. However, the Supreme Court said that caution has to be taken in this case as the matter is related to personal law.
The Supreme Court said that how can we interfere in Personal Law. We are issuing notice with precaution. When the case was heard in front of a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, the court said that you want Personal law to be abolished? You are not saying that, but whatever is said in this case is really like that.
The petition said that despite having clear provisions in the constitution, the central government has failed to give alimony without gender, religious discrimination to all citizens.
Chief Justice SA Bobde, presiding over the 3-judge bench, told Pinky Anand, the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, “You are demanding removal of personal law in a way”. Pinky Anand said that only those fundamental in the petition The issue of violation of rights has been raised, which the Constitution has given to every citizen. We are talking about the right to life with respect to not being discriminated against on the basis of gender and religion and on this, the Chief Justice said, “You Say, but this demand has a far-reaching effect. “
The court indicated the demand for divorce to send a law commission for consideration. Till then, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora started arguing for the second case listed in the same petition. She told the court that there are different arrangements in the country on what allowance will be given to the woman during the marital dispute and after the divorce. A Muslim woman only survives 3 months of Iddat (time during divorce process). After the divorce, only Mehr gets the amount, which is decided by both the families at the time of marriage. This is a violation of the rights of not only the woman but also her children.
The petition has demanded the Supreme Court to direct the Central Government to take steps to remove the discrepancies in the divorce laws. The petition said that the apex court should issue directions to the central government to make equal laws for all citizens, without prejudice on the issue of divorce on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. It has also been demanded that the court declare that the partisan grounds of divorce violate Articles 14, 15, 21. In such a situation, guidelines should be issued for all citizens on the same grounds of divorce.