New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has moved the Supreme Court against a plea seeking "uniform grounds of divorce" for all citizens of the country, keeping with the spirit of the Constitution and international conventions.
The AIMPLB has opposed the plea filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking uniform grounds of divorce on the basis that personal laws cannot be tested on the anvil of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 44 of the Constitution.
“The applicant would like to submit that the expression and ''Custom and Usage'' in Article 13 of the Constitution does not include faith of a religious denomination embedded in personal laws," the plea said while seeking impleadment in the petition filed by Upadhyay.
“The Constituent Assembly was aware of the distinction between ''personal law'' and the ''custom and usage'' and chose advisedly to exclude personal law and include custom and usage in Article 13 of the Constitution,” it said.
The Board in its plea submitted that the laws relating to marriage and divorce amongst the Hindus themselves are not uniform and thus the customs and practices have been protected by the statute itself.
The top court on December 16 last year had issued notice to the Centre on the plea filed by Upadhyay.
His plea sought directions to the Centre to take steps to remove anomalies in divorce laws and make them uniform for all citizens, without any prejudice on the basis of religion, race, cast, sex or place of birth.
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