Supreme Court seeks Centre's stand on uniform grounds for divorce, alimony

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to file a response on pleas seeking uniform ground for divorce, maintenance and alimony for all citizens, regardless of the faith they followed.

A bench of magistrate UU Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhat also asked the petitioners to provide details about identical petitions also so they will be concerned for consideration together. 

The petitions have also sought uniform adoption and guardianship, uniform succession and inheritance and uniform age of marriage.

One of the petitions sought uniform "gender and religion-neutral" grounds for all citizens in awarding maintenance and alimony in matrimonial disputes. It sought the removal of anomalies on the bottom of succession and inheritance and to form them gender-neutral, religion-neutral, and uniform for all citizens.

Another plea sought "uniform grounds of divorce" for all citizens of the country, keeping with the spirit of the Constitution and international conventions. 

The petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay has stated that even after years of Independence and years of India becoming a socialist, secular, democratic, republic, laws referring to maintenance and alimony don't seem to be only complex and cumbersome but also against the constitutional mandate of being equal, rational and just.

Discriminatory maintenance and alimony reinforce patriarchal and stereotypical notions about women and thus any provision that perpetrates or reinforces discriminatory stereotypes against women is manifestly arbitrary, said the plea while seeking gender and spiritual neutral uniform ground of maintenance and alimony keeping with the spirit of the Constitution and international conventions.