Maharashtra's Uniform Civil Code: Committee to draft legislation in two weeks

The Maharashtra government announced its intention to constitute an expert committee — to be headed by a retired High Court judge — within two weeks, tasked ...

What Happened

The Maharashtra government announced its intention to constitute an expert committee — to be headed by a retired High Court judge — within two weeks, tasked with preparing a draft Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for the state.
The committee is expected to study personal law matters including marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption, and prepare draft legislation based on which the state government will take further steps toward implementation.
The announcement confirmed that issues such as polygamy and other personal law matters will be within the committee's scope of examination.
Maharashtra joins a growing list of states actively pursuing UCC legislation; Uttarakhand (2024) and Goa (by virtue of its colonial-era Portuguese Civil Code) already have uniform personal law frameworks in force.

Static Topic Bridges

Article 44 of the Constitution — Uniform Civil Code as a Directive Principle

Article 44, contained in Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy) of the Constitution, reads: "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India." The DPSPs are non-justiciable — they cannot be directly enforced by courts — but are constitutionally binding as guidance to the legislature and executive.

The UCC was a subject of extensive debate in the Constituent Assembly. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, strongly supported a UCC as essential to secularism and equality, arguing that personal law distinctions based on religion were incompatible with a modern democratic republic.
The UCC was placed in the DPSP chapter rather than in the Fundamental Rights chapter as a political compromise, acknowledging the sensitivity of religious personal laws while signalling the constitutional aspiration for uniformity.
Entry 5 of List III (Concurrent List) of the Seventh Schedule covers "marriage and divorce; infants and minors; adoption; wills, intestacy and succession; joint family and partition" — placing personal law under concurrent jurisdiction of Parliament and state legislatures, meaning states can legislate on UCC within their territories.

Connection to this news: Maharashtra's committee exercise is a state government acting on the constitutional directive in Article 44 by initiating the legislative process through expert deliberation — the established institutional mechanism for complex law reform.

Goa Civil Code — India's Pre-existing Model

Goa is the only Indian state that has operated under a uniform personal law since before independence. The Goa Civil Code is a heavily Indianised adaptation of the Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, introduced during colonial rule and retained after Goa's liberation and integration into India in 1961 under the Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act, 1962.

The Goa Civil Code applies uniformly to all citizens in Goa regardless of religion — covering marriage, succession, and property.
It is rooted in the Napoleonic Code tradition (common in continental European legal systems), subsequently localised through Indian court decisions.
The Code is frequently cited in Supreme Court judgments as evidence that a UCC is practically implementable in India.
Unlike the rest of India, where Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Parsis each have separate personal law statutes, Goa's single code governs all.

Connection to this news: The Goa Civil Code is the most cited empirical precedent in any UCC debate in India — Maharashtra's committee will almost certainly study it as a working template for what a state-level uniform personal law can look like in practice.

Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Act, 2024

Uttarakhand became the first Indian state to legislate a UCC after independence. The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act, 2024 was passed by the state Legislative Assembly on February 7, 2024, received Presidential assent on March 13, 2024, and came into force on January 27, 2025.

Drafted by a five-member expert committee chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
Establishes uniform minimum marriageable ages (18 for women, 21 for men), uniform grounds for divorce, equal inheritance rights for sons and daughters, and compulsory registration of marriages and live-in relationships.
Members of Scheduled Tribes are exempted from the Act's provisions.
It is the first Indian law to regulate live-in relationships.

Connection to this news: The Uttarakhand model — an expert committee drafting the law followed by state assembly passage — is the direct procedural precedent Maharashtra is replicating. The Maharashtra committee structure (retired judge heading it) mirrors the Uttarakhand drafting panel arrangement.

Shah Bano Case (1985) and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986

The Supreme Court's ruling in Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum (1985) is the most significant judicial intervention in the UCC debate. The Court upheld the right of a divorced Muslim woman to claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and observed, in an obiter dictum, that a UCC would help national integration and reduce conflicts arising from disparate personal laws.

Shah Bano Begum, divorced by her husband in 1978, sought maintenance beyond the iddat period; the Supreme Court ruled in her favour under the CrPC's secular maintenance provision.
The Court explicitly referenced Article 44, stating: "A common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies."
In response to political pressure, Parliament enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which effectively overrode the Supreme Court's ruling by restricting Muslim women's maintenance claims to the iddat period — a legislative reversal that intensified the UCC debate.

Connection to this news: The Shah Bano episode defined the political landscape of personal law reform in India and established the argument that differential treatment of women under religion-specific personal laws is a social justice issue — the same argument underlying state-level UCC initiatives today.

Sarla Mudgal Case (1995) — Supreme Court's Call for UCC

In Sarla Mudgal & Ors. v. Union of India (1995), the Supreme Court addressed the practice of Hindu husbands converting to Islam to contract a second marriage without dissolving the first.

The Court held that a second marriage solemnised after conversion to Islam, without dissolution of the first marriage, is void under Section 494 IPC (bigamy).
Justice Kuldeep Singh, in the judgment, strongly urged the Government of India to implement Article 44 and enact a UCC, though the Court stopped short of issuing a formal direction.
The case highlighted how the absence of a UCC created legal arbitrage — where individuals could use religious conversion to sidestep obligations under personal law.

Connection to this news: Sarla Mudgal is one of a series of Supreme Court judgments reinforcing the constitutional and moral imperative of a UCC, forming the jurisprudential foundation on which state legislative efforts like Maharashtra's now stand.

Key Facts & Data

Article 44: Part IV (DPSPs) of the Constitution — "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India."
Entry 5, List III (Concurrent List): Personal law subjects (marriage, divorce, succession, adoption) are under concurrent jurisdiction.
Goa Civil Code: Based on Portuguese Civil Code of 1867; retained after 1961 integration under the Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act, 1962.
Shah Bano case: Supreme Court (1985); overridden legislatively by Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.
Sarla Mudgal case: Supreme Court (1995) — held conversion-based bigamy void under IPC Section 494; called for UCC implementation.
Uttarakhand UCC Act: Passed February 7, 2024; Presidential assent March 13, 2024; in force January 27, 2025; drafted by panel chaired by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
Maharashtra: Committee formation announced mid-2026; to be headed by a retired High Court judge; to draft legislation within two weeks of constitution.