Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed current legal regime as “communal” and called for replacing it with a “secular” civil code as per the poll promise of his political party BJP.
During his first speech in his third term on India’s 78th Independence Day, Modi said that a big section of society believes that the current civil code is in a way a communal civil code.
“We have lived 75 years with a communal civil code. It is a civil code which promotes discrimination. It divides the country along religious lines and promotes inequality. Now, we have to move towards a secular civil code. A secular civil code in the country is the need of the hour,” Modi said.
At present, there are separate laws for citizen around marriage , divorce, adoption, property inheritance etc based on religion and community traditions.
Bharatiya Janata Party, to which Modi belongs, has been pushing for Uniform Civil Code which make common law for all citizens irrespective of their religion.