Action Plan

Prepare a draft UCC Bill and put it up in the Public domain for comments within a fixed time, say three months. NALSAR / Law Colleges in Bangalore and Delhi, should be tasked to each independently prepare a draft UCC bill and they could then all be combined into one draft by a committee of some Members of Parliament from all Communities, duly taking consideration of comments and recommendations received thereon again in a time bound manner, again say, an additional three months.

To ensure against delays caused by nit-picking and calls for too much detail to cater for every contingency that may arise in future in every tradition, it would be better to insist on the time given to be realistically limited. Perhaps it may even require us to follow what President Sukarno of Indonesia did when he was trying to get the Scholars to finalize a script for Basha Indonesia, or what the Papal Conclave does when electing a new Pope – lock them all in, till it is done. Hopefully the threat of this should suffice. Once passed, we can leave it to the Courts to thereafter interpret the rules therein flexibly, or even call for amendments as deemed necessary, in the then circumstances and context, while holding to the principle of a UCC.

In the 1930’s, the then non-communist China, in a similar situation, handled the problem of introducing a UCC very effectively. The law was made applicable on passing, to all people then below 18 years of age. For the rest of the population the Law would become applicable only after 30 years, or if a person volunteered earlier to be dealt with under the new Law. Thus, allowing for any existing situation contrary to the proposed UCC, to simply expire in due course.

Once the option to be dealt with under the new Law was exercised there was no going back and within a decade most people had opted for the new code. This at one stroke removed most of the anxieties of the affected population.

We too today, should do so, introduce a UCC with a great degree of voluntary acceptance, applicable to all aged above 18 years of age. Those younger would also automatically come under the UCC. The real ‘die-hards’ and those for whom the new code was not an option, as they were already locked in against its provisions, may opt to continue to live under the old code for 10 or 15 more years, and that to only in such matters as affected only them and not their children or others, who may opt otherwise. As this would be a voluntary decision for those over 18 for others only after 10 or 15years, and not a top-down immediate imposition, it will be better received.

In the context of the present times, the minimum age for Marriage should strictly be minimum 18 years for women and 21 years for men, in order to allow for the women to complete their Class XII education, and for the men to complete their College graduation / Vocational training and thus, be mature enough to able to understand and take-up the responsibilities/commitments they each would be making.

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