This refers to the editorial, “Time for common code” (October 16). Ushering in a common civil code for all citizens will go a long way in ensuring gender justice, irrespective of religion, in accordance with modern and contemporary standards of justice and humanism.
A uniform civil code will never seek to stipulate uniformity of religious rites and ceremonies, for formalising marriage, but will regulate the rights and obligations of the parties in a spirit of equality, justice and fairness. Whereas the Hindu law is overhauled and reformed to a great extent by the Parliament of India, the Muslim and the Christian personal laws continue to remain in the relics of colonial era.
Discrimination based on religion must end both in civil and criminal law, if the rule of law, equality and secularism, which are the core values of our Constitution, are to have any real meaning in practice.