New Delhi: The Law Commission plans to recommend to the Union Government to legislate a common law which will take care of all matters related to divorce, maintenance or alimony and child custody issues, but to not make it “compulsory”.
Chairman of the Law Commission Justice B.S. Chauhan said that the law should be “optional”, leaving the decision to women in case they want to seek remedy under the proposed law.
Speaking exclusively with this newspaper, Justice Chauhan said that at present a woman has to face multiple legal proceedings for divorce, to seek alimony from her former husband and to claim the custody of her child/children. He said the Law Commission is working on a common law for all that will provide composite court proceedings encompassing divorce, maintenance and children’s custody.
“We have sought the views of different stake-holders whether the law can be made optional. We will recommend a draft law to take care of all situations and in what manner it can be enforced,” he said.
Asked to spell out the scope of the common law, Justice Chauhan clarified, “We ourselves don’t know what Uniform Civil Code is and what is required. At this stage we cannot anticipate what should be the model and what will be acceptable to people. We did not want to recommend something that people do not want. At this stage we can only say that triple talaq is abolished in 22 Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. Those who are claiming that they are progressive will not support the form of triple talaq sent through SMS or email,” he said and cited a recent incident in Rajasthan where a Muslim husband on coming to know that his wife has delivered a girl child said “talaq” thrice and divorced his wife. “After collecting feedback, we will be able to draw an inference whether the time for UCC has come or not.
