When Atal Bihari Vajpayee lambasted political parties over Uniform Civil Code – Watch video

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held triple talaq being practised by the Muslim community as "unconstitutional", "arbitrary" and "not part of Islam".

New Delhi: With the Supreme Court striking down the centuries-old practice of instant triple talaq by a ​3-2 decision among Indian Muslims, the debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has once again emerged.

While addressing the Lok Sabha, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had advocated for UCC, saying if the country can have a single criminal law, then why can't there be a uniform civil law for all the citizens.

Citing examples of Islamic countries amending their personal laws with the changing times, the veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had back then attacked the political parties for not appealing to the Muslim community to bring some changes in the Muslim Personal Law.

In 2015, Law Commission had sent a questionnaire on Uniform Civil Code to all political parties, to seek their response.

Seeking to widen its consultation on the contentious issue of uniform civil code, the Law Commission had asked all national and state political parties to share their views and plans to invite their representatives for interaction on the subject.

The panel sent a questionnaire on the subject to the parties and asked them to send their views.

For the first time in India's constitutional history, the Centre had on October 7, 2016 opposed in the Supreme Court the practice of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims and favoured a relook on grounds of gender equality and secularism.

Bharat Ratna Fmr PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on reforms of personal law triple talaq and uniform civil code. pic.twitter.com/l4bowDe3Im

— Sriram (@srirambjp) August 23, 2017