Can’t direct government to enact uniform civil code: CJI TS Thakur

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice TS Thakur ruled out any court intervention to direct Parliament or the government to enact a uniform civil code, observing that the Supreme Court has repeatedly expressed its "pious hope" that the country would have such a law someday, but cannot go any further to compel the authorities to act.

A three-judge bench of Justices Thakur, AK Sikri and R Banumathi on Monday also tore into a petitioner, who filed a PIL on this issue, for pointing accusing fingers at another community over the way women are treated. "Let that community deal with its problems. Let its women come forward to challenge the triple talaq. Why should you raise a grievance about another community," the court asked.

The court asked how it could issue a mandamus to Parliament. "Commitment to constitutional goals in one thing. Enforcing it is another," Justice Thakur told senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, who was appearing for the petitioner. On the country having a uniform civil code, he said: "It is a pious hope, an aspiration." Subramaniam argued that the court could direct the government to enact such a law.