The UCC Debate in the Constituent Assembly
It is in this background that Article 35 of the draft Constitution (now included as Article 44) was debated. Mohammad Ismail Sahib and Naziruddin Ahmad wanted to amend Article 35 and include that no one would be compelled to give up their personal laws.
They argued that the right to adhere to one’s personal law was part of their right to religion and way of life. Citizens could not be compelled to give up their personal laws in order to augment harmony.3 Ahmad argued that Art. 35 was in conflict with Art. 19 of the draft Constitution (now Art. 25) which gave citizens the right to profess, practice and propagate their religion. Ahmad wanted the interference by state in matters of religion to be a gradual and slow process. Hindus too were opposed to UCC. K M Munshi, an ardent supporter of UCC, said, “I know there are many among Hindus who do not like a UCC... they feel that personal laws of inheritance, succession etc. are really a part of their religion. If that were so, you can never give, for instance, equality to women.” Munshi was in favour of UCC on the grounds of gender equality and for unity of the nation. He said, “whether we are going to consolidate and unify our personal laws in such a way that the way of life of the whole country may in course of time be unified and secular. We want to divorce religion from personal law, from what may be called social relations or from the rights of parties as regards inheritance or succession.” (p. 547). But then Pocker Sahib Bahadur and Hussain Imam asked which Hindu law would become the basis of UCC given the diverse traditions within Hinduism and differences in educational levels in the country.Dr B R Ambedkar said, “It (Article 35) does not say that after the Code is framed the State shall enforce it upon all citizens merely because they are citizens.” The future Parliament, Ambedkar opined, could bring in family laws that were applicable to those who voluntarily chose to be bound by it (p. 551). The Special Marriage Act, 1954, is such a voluntary code. Art. 35 was passed by the Constituent Assembly without any amendments that protected the citizens from being compelled to give up their personal laws.
III.
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