NEWS-GOA: Goa: A success story in uniform civil code

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http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=107963

PTI 

Goa: A success story in uniform civil code 

DEVIDAS GUPTA NEW DELHI, DEC 29 (PTI)
Although Article 44 of the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in 
the Indian Constitution lays down that the "State shall endeavour to secure for 
citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India," government 
after government at the Centre has shied away from passing a legislation to 
this effect.

Not many people in India know, however, that a Uniform Civil Code exists in Goa 
which is accepted by all communities-- Hindus, Christians, Muslims and others.

The Goa Civil Code, collectively called Family Laws, was framed and enforced by 
the Portuguese colonial rulers through various legislations in the 19th and 
20th centuries. After the liberation of Goa in 1961, the Indian State scrapped 
all the colonial laws and extended the Central laws to the territory but made 
the exception of retaining the Family Laws because all the Goan communities 
wanted it.

Former Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud commented that "the dream of a 
uniform civil code in the country finds its realisation" in Goa, expressing 
hope that it would one day "awaken the rest of bigoted India and inspire it to 
emulate Goa.

"Although a common civil code has functioned for more than four decades in Goa, 
in the rest of the country every religious community is governed by its 
specific civil code," observes Arun Sinha, in a recently published book : "Goa 
India: A Critical Potrait of Post Colonial Goa". "But in Goa religion is 
neutral to the common civil code." Goa's Civil Code is a guarantee against 
ill-treatment of the wife by the husband, since she has an equal claim to all 
the properties held by him and can make him suffer by forcing dissolution of 
the marriage.

The philosophy behind the Portuguese Civil Code was to strengthen the family as 
the backbone of society by inculcating a spirit of tolerance between husband 
and wife and providing for inbuilt safeguards against injustice by one spouse 
against the other, says Sinha.

The most woman-friendly attribute of the civil code is this: All the properties 
brought by either of the spouses by gift, succession or a previous exclusive 
right from before the marriage as well as all the properties acquired or earned 
by either of them during the subsistence of the marriage were to be held as 
common property by the two spouses till the dissolution of their marriage by 
death, divorce or separation.

In the rest of the country, the personal laws of the communities give unequal 
rights to women, making them vulnerable to the whims of the husbands and the 
manipulation of loopholes in the legislations by them. The Muslim Personal Law 
is loaded against wives, who are often reduced to beggary and destitution.

But the personal laws of other communities in the rest of the country too do 
not favour women. A divorced Hindu woman, for instance, might not get any 
mainteannce or be allowed by law just a ridiculous sum of twenty or fifty 
rupees a month as alimony.

In contrast, the Goa code gives equal rights to men and women in affairs of 
divorce, separation, share of couple's property, succession, guardianship of 
children, gifts and adoption, say legal experts.

However, there are certain inequities embedded in the Goa's family laws, says 
Sinha in his book.

For instance, he says one law sanctions a second marriage for the Hindu husband 
if the first wife has not delivered an issue till the age of 25 or (even worse) 
if she has not delivered a male issue till the age of 30. "This is an absurd 
and outdated provision, considering that neither the Constitution nor the 
liberal society sanctions gender inequality," the book notes.

The orthodox Islamic clergy in India made several attempts in the past to get 
Goa's Civil code scrapped and the Muslim Personal Law extended to the State. In 
the early 1980s, they began an agitation in the state on the issue, taking 
support from a Muslim Minister in the then Government.

However, a strong counter movement erupted, led by a young Muslim woman called 
Rashida Muzawar, who was a first year student of law whose fiery speeches 
against the obscurantist Mullahs began to draw huge crowds. For almost a year, 
street demonstrations and mosque congregations for and against the extension of 
the Shariat Law to Goa continued.

Ultimately, the liberal Muslims were found in an overwhelming majority in Goa 
who insisted on the continuation of the common civil code.

Justice Chandrachud had remarked "... A uniform Civil code (in the country) 
remains today a distant goal. In my view it would be retrogate step if Goa too 
were to give up uniformity in its personal laws which it now possseses.
 
 

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Frederick Noronha Journalist
Ph 832.2409490 or 2409783
Saligao 403511 Goa India
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