Discriminations in various Matrimonial Laws which need to be corrected in Uniform Civil Code - Shonee Kapoor

It has been amply debated in media that the matrimonial laws governing the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians and the Parsis are at great variance from and discriminatory to one another. It is said that, if implemented, the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) would bring uniformity in matrimonial laws across all religious communities. Presently, different religious groups are governed by their respective personal laws, some codified & some non codified, resulting in varying rights and responsibilities concerning marriage & divorce.

This article attempts to bring some of those provisions to bring home the point how religious laws differ in terms of matrimonial obligations and divorce:

1. The Muslims are polygamous, but the Hindus, the Christians and the Parsis are monogamous in India.
2. In India the Muslims are allowed extra-judicial divorce, but the Hindus, the Christians and the Parsis can effect divorce only through Court and only on certain grounds.
3. A wife married under the Muslim Law can be divorced by the husband at any time an unspecified grounds; but parties married under the Hindu, the Christian or the Parsi Law can be divorced only on certain grounds specified in those laws and, that too, only through Court.
4. Under the Muslim Law, a Muslim husband’s apostasy from Islam results in automatic dissolution of a Muslim marriage, though a wife’s apostasy does not. Under the Hindu Law, apostasy from Hinduism by either of the spouses does not, by itself, affect a Hindu marriage, though it confers on the non- apostate spouse a right to sue the apostate for divorce. Under the Parsi Law also, if any spouse ceases to be Zoroastrian, the other spouse would be entitled to sue for dissolution of marriage but such renunciation of religion would not, by itself, affect the continuity of the Parsi marriage. Similarly after the 2001 Amendment to the Divorce Act 1869, a change of religion by one or the other spouse has no effect on a Christian marriage but the non-convert spouse would be entitled to sue for divorce.
5. Under the Hindu Marriage Act and also the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, both the wife and the husband are entitled to alimony pendente lite and permanent alimony from the other and no limit is fixed therefor. Under the Divorce Act and Special Marriage Act however, only the wife is so entitled.
6. Under the Muslim Law, there cannot be remarriage between a husband and a wife divorced by Talak, unless the wife thereafter contracts an intermediate marriage with another person and that marriage is dissolved after actual consummation. No other Matrimonial Law has any such corresponding provision.
7. Under the Hindu Law and the Parsi Law, non- resumption of cohabitation after the passing of a decree for judicial separation or for restitution of conjugal right is a ground of divorce. After 2001 under the Christian Law only failure to comply with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights for two years or more is a ground for divorce.
8. Under the Parsi Law, sodomy, bestiality or similar sexual perversities on the part of any spouse would entitle the other spouse to a decree for divorce against the former. But under the other Matrimonial Laws, such a ground is available only to the wife and not to the husband.
9. Under the Goa Civil Code; the Hindu Males are allowed Bigamy under special circumstances, i.e. they don’t have a child and wife has attained the age of 25 or they don’t have a male child and wife has attained the age of 30 years.