Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. :- It was just the other day that a Constitution Bench of this court had to emphasise the urgency of infusing life into Art. 44 of the Constitution which provides that "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India." The present case is yet another which focusses attention on the immediate and compulsive need for a uniform civil code. The totally unsatisfactory state of affairs consequent on the lack of a uniform civil code is exposed by the facts of the present. case. Before mentioning the facts of the case, we might as well refer to the observations of Chandrachud, C. J., in the recent case decided by the Constitution Bench (Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum (1985 Cri LJ 875) :

"There is no evidence of any official activity for framing a common civil code for the country ..................A common Civil Code will help the case of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies. No community is likely to bell the cat by making gratuitous concessions on this issue. It is the State which is charged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code fo