A Mumbai-based women’s rights organisation has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking it be allowed to intervene in the main petition filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay on uniform grounds of divorce. The petitioner, Bharatiya Stree Shakti through its national secretary Kumudini Bhargaw, has sought an appropriate direction to the Central Government for the formulation of a law having uniform grounds of divorce and uniformity in grant of alimony for women, irrespective of their religion.
Bhargaw’s petition said Applicant/Intervener Bharatiya Stree Shakti is a registered association and was founded in 1988. It is a voluntary, autonomous, apolitical organization committed to empowering women, families and society at large with the vision to reinstate the innate strengths, qualities and capacities of women; dignity and equal status of women in the family and society.
Bharatiya Stree Shakti published a detailed report titled “Efficacy of Laws Pertaining to Property and Marital Rights in Different Religions in India” in 2017 in collaboration with National Commission for Women which is self-explanatory, thus the applicant wishes to assist the Court in formulation of uniform law on divorce.
That the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which proclaimed that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Two decades later, in another Declaration, known as the Declaration on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1967, it was declared that discrimination against women, denying or limiting their equality of rights with men is fundamentally unjust and constitutes an offence against human dignity.
The Declaration in particular urges all the governments to take appropriate measures “to abolish existing laws, customs, regulations and practices which are discriminatory against women, and to establish adequate legal protection for equal rights of men and women”.
The Constitution of India, following the above Declaration closely, guarantees all its citizens equality of status and of opportunity without discrimination based on the ground only of sex. Article 44 of the Constitution specifically mentions, “State shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.”
Article 14 of the Constitution grants “equal protection of law” to all its citizens. But when it comes to personal issues like marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children etc, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis etc. are governed by the laws according to their own religions in India.
Bharatiya Stree Shakti has volunteered in the field of study and research status of women and the status of women and had published a report in 2017. The applicant therefore wishes to assist the Court on the above aspect outlined in this application and for this reasons, may be permitted to intervene and place the relevant material before this Court for its consideration on this vital issue relating to formulation of uniform grounds for divorce.
The petitioner has no pecuniary, proprietary or business interest in the subject matter of the present case and only seeks to assist this Court in laying down the law on this particular subject matter. The petitioner thus prayed the Court to allow the applicant to intervene in writ petition civil No. 869 of 2020.
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