Indian Polity Quiz: Uniform Civil Code (Article 44)

Article 44 of the Constitution, placed in Part IV among the Directive Principles of State Policy, says that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

Part IV of the Constitution, Articles 36 to 51, sets out the goals of a welfare state: Article 38 asks the State to promote the welfare of the people and to reduce inequalities of income, status and opportunity, Article 39 directs the distribution of material resources for the common good…

Article 40, a Directive Principle in Part IV, asks the State to organise village panchayats and to give them the powers and authority needed to function as units of self-government; it is the parent provision behind the Seventy-third Constitutional Amendment.

Article 39(c), a directive in Part IV, requires the State to direct its policy towards ensuring that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment, and Article 39(b) asks that the ownership and control of material…

Article 47 directs the State to regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties, and it adds that the State shall endeavour to bring about the prohibition of intoxicating drinks and…

Part IV of the Constitution contains the Directive Principles of State Policy in Articles 36 to 51, and Article 44 on the uniform civil code is one of them.

The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was extended to Goa and continued in force after its liberation in 1961, so Goans of every religion are governed by largely the same rules on marriage, divorce and succession, with only a few community-specific usages surviving.

Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum. In this 1985 judgment the Supreme Court allowed a divorced Muslim woman maintenance under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a secular provision open to women of every faith, and the Court remarked that Article 44 had remained a dead letter.

It provides a civil form of marriage open to all Indian citizens irrespective of religion, with registration before a marriage officer after a notice period, and succession in such marriages is governed by the Indian Succession Act rather than any religious law.

The Uttarakhand Assembly passed a Uniform Civil Code Bill in February 2024, the Bill received the President's assent, and the law was brought into force in January 2025, making Uttarakhand the first state of independent India to legislate a common code on marriage, divorce, live-in relationships and succession for its…

Entry 5 of List III of the Seventh Schedule covers marriage and divorce, infants and minors, adoption, wills, intestacy and succession, joint family and partition, and all matters in respect of which parties in judicial proceedings were immediately before the commencement of the Constitution subject to their personal law.