A recent Indian Supreme Court ruling that unwed mothers can become the only legal guardian of a child has sparked a debate with some seeing the judgment as favoring the implementation of a uniform civil code, replacing religion-based personal laws.
The court July 7 allowed a single mother, a Christian, the right to apply for sole guardianship of her young son without needing the consent of his biological father.
"India is a secular nation and it is a cardinal necessity that religion be distanced from law," Justice Vikramajit Sen had said.
That ruling sparked a debate as Hindus, Christians and Muslims in India have separate laws based on their customs and religion to govern marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance, besides another law allowing civil marriages devoid of religions.
The Catholic Church has not so far taken an open stand supporting or opposing uniform civil code, said lawyer Jose Abraham, who heads the Indian bishops' Committee for Law and Public Interest litigation.
The latest judgment should be seen as a progressive one with the highest court stressing the need of uniform civil code, Abraham said.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India's deputy secretary general Father Joseph Chinnayan said giving guardianship of a child to an unwed mother is "something the Church upholds and value."
The Church allows baptism of such children, filing the column for father as "unknown," which "shows the Church's acceptance of the mother as the sole guardian of the child," Father Chinnayan, former president of Canon Law Society of India.
However, the matter of uniform civil code is "something that the Church needs to study in depth before taking a stand," he said.
For decades some groups including Hindu hardliners have been pushing for a uniform civil code to replace these religion-based laws.
"Uniform civil code is a must for India's integrity and unity," Pandit Ajay Gautam, a Hindu religious leader told ucanews.com yesterday.
Traditionally Muslims in India have been opposing the uniform civil code, which was in the 1990s made a chief election issue by Hindu groups led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is now in power in India since May 2014.
Close to 80 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people are Hindus. Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs are religious minorities with Muslims being the largest at 14 percent.
