Uniform Civil Code: Supreme Court tells government to take swift decision

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to come up with a swift decision on uniform civil code to bring an end to the continuing confusion over personal laws. 

A bench headed by justice Vikramjit Sen told solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, "If you want to have a uniform civil code have it, you want to follow the uniform civil code, follow it. But you must take a decision soon."

The SC also asked the government to come up with a proposal to amend the Christian divorce act. The call came after the court was in hearing with a Delhi-based man who is seeking to scrape off the two-year mandatory separation before a Christian couple can move court for divorce by mutual consent. For other religions, the separation period is listed as one year. 

Christians file for divorce under Section 10A (1) which states that a petition for dissolution of marriage by mutual consent can be presented before a court only after a judicial separation of two years. However, the period of separation is one year in other statutes such as the Special Marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act and the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act.