Uniform Civil Code | Delhi High Court asks lawyer to file information on similar pleas before Supreme Courts

The Delhi High Court said on April 25 the petition by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) was prima facie not maintainable and asked him to place before it the prayers made by him before the Supreme Court in similar matters.

The Delhi High Court said on April 25 the petition by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) was prima facie not maintainable and asked him to place before it the prayers made by him before the Supreme Court in similar matters.

"You file those prayers. We will see. It is prima facie not maintainable. We will first see if it is maintainable," a Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad told Mr. Upadhyay.

The court was informed that in March the top court refused to entertain petitions by Mr. Upadhyay in respect of gender neutral and religion neutral laws observing that these fell within the legislative domain and that he had even withdrawn a plea from there in relation to UCC in 2015.

The court remarked that a "simpliciter withdrawal" has to be distinguished from a "withdrawal with liberty" to approach a court with the same grievance and directed the petitioner to file the prayers in these matters in four weeks.

Lawyer M. R. Shamshad, representing the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said he was the intervenor in the case and the Supreme Court has rejected Mr. Upadhyay's petitions on the same subject matter.

"He filed four petitions in Supreme Court which were dismissed....This was his second round," he said. Mr. Upadhyay said his pleas before the apex court concerned talaq (divorce) under the Muslim law and he was awaiting the response of the Law Commission.