Even Politics blocks a Uniform Civil Code Supreme Court Speaks up for Individual Right.
In a significant decision the Supreme Court allowed a single mother, who happened to be Christian, the right to apply for sole guardian ship of her young son without needing the consent of his biological father. It spoke of the relative disadvantage of Christian unwed mothers, who are not presumed to be the natural guardians of their children by the Guardians and Wards Act that governs these matters. The court also observed that the Uniform Civil Code envisioned in the Constitution's directive principles remains an unaddressed expectation.
This is a welcome ruling, one that comes down on the side of personal freedom and equal rights of citizenship. Like a similar judgment last year when the Supreme Court gave religious minorities the right to legally adopt children even if personal law contradicted it, this judgment expands freedom in the familial domain. It shows the way forward even as political debate on the Uniform Civil Code remains stuck in old arguments between right wing voices that want to use it as a weapon to efface minority personal laws now that the Hindu code has had to fall in line, and minorities who see it as an attempt to ride roughshod over their right to protect their religious tenets and cultural distinctiveness. Either way, this situation hurts women from minority communities.
In a significant decision the Supreme Court allowed a single mother, who happened to be Christian, the right to apply for sole guardian ship of her young son without needing the consent of his biological father. It spoke of the relative disadvantage of Christian unwed mothers, who are not presumed to be the natural guardians of their children by the Guardians and Wards Act that governs these matters. The court also observed that the Uniform Civil Code envisioned in the Constitution's directive principles remains an unaddressed expectation.
This is a welcome ruling, one that comes down on the side of personal freedom and equal rights of citizenship. Like a similar judgment last year when the Supreme Court gave religious minorities the right to legally adopt children even if personal law contradicted it, this judgment expands freedom in the familial domain. It shows the way forward even as political debate on the Uniform Civil Code remains stuck in old arguments between right wing voices that want to use it as a weapon to efface minority personal laws now that the Hindu code has had to fall in line, and minorities who see it as an attempt to ride roughshod over their right to protect their religious tenets and cultural distinctiveness. Either way, this situation hurts women from minority communities.
