The Directive Principle in Article 44 that asks the State to try to secure a uniform civil code for all citizens, meaning common laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance regardless of religion.
British India had a common criminal law but left family matters—marriage, divorce, succession and adoption—to the personal laws of each religious community. At independence, the Constituent Assembly debated whether to make a uniform civil code a Fundamental Right. Members such as Minoo Masani, Hansa Mehta and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur wanted it to be justiciable, while members like Mohammad Ismail and Naziruddin Ahmad opposed it as interference in religion. K. M. Munshi and B. R. Ambedkar argued that personal law could be reformed by the State without violating religious freedom. The compromise was to make it a Directive Principle.
In the 1950s, Parliament reformed Hindu personal law through the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, which also apply to Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The Special Marriage Act 1954 offered an optional secular law for marriages. Muslim, Christian and Parsi personal laws were largely left to their communities, with some later reforms.
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