Won’t issue direction to Parliament for drafting uniform civil code: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday said it will not issue any direction to Parliament for drafting a uniform civil code as the matter falls under the domain of the legislature and it was not going to interfere into it.A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar declined to ask the central government to file a response to the five petitions saying, “Nothing doing. The matter needs to be disposed of. We are not going to give a direction to the Parliament.”However, it allowed the petitioners, including BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, to argue their respective cases.The bench on Friday heard substantial arguments on behalf of petitioners Firoz Bakht Ahmed, the chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, and Amber Zaidi, who claims to be a social activist and media personality.It said it will continue to hear arguments on behalf of the others, including Upadhyay on Monday.It refused to allow the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to argue in the matter, saying “we have not yet allowed you to intervene. How can you argue then?”When the matter came up for hearing in the post-lunch session, Upadhyay, who is also a lawyer, told the court that it had issued notice to the Centre in this matter on May 31 and till date no counter affidavit has been filed by the government.He and the lawyers for the other petitioners urged the bench to ask the government to file its response in their respective petitions, before continuing with hearing the matter.However, the court declined to do so and said if the government does not want to file a response, let it not.It asked the petitioners to lay down what relief they were seeking and said that thereafter, it will pass an order.The counsel for Ahmed, the grandnephew of India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, and Zaidi told the court that there were several Supreme Court judgements favouring creation of a uniform civil code, but the government till date has not even initiated a consultation on the issue. They urged the bench to direct the government to at least initiate a consultation process on whether there is a need for a uniform civil code as provided under Article 44 of the Constitution. All the petitioners, in their respective pleas, have contended that India “urgently needs a Uniform Civil Code” to promote national integration as well as gender justice, equality and dignity of women.