The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain petitions seeking gender- and religion-neutral laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and alimony.
The Court held that the making of laws exclusively falls under the jurisdiction of the legislature. We cannot direct the Parliament to make laws.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala took note of the Solicitor General’s submission that the issue fell within the domain of the legislature. Hence the petitions cannot be entertained. Disposing of petitions in this regard, including those filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, the bench said the issue exclusively falls within the jurisdiction of the legislature. Parliament cannot be mandated to make laws for this.
Ashwini Upadhyay has sought directions to the Center to enact a gender and religiously neutral uniform law for divorce, adoption, custody, succession, inheritance, maintenance, age of marriage and alimony. Separate petitions were filed.
Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea
Earlier, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking to raise the minimum age of marriage to 21 for both men and women. The court had said that giving a verdict related to fixing this age would mean directing the Parliament to make a law. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narsingh and Justice JB Pardiwala had said that it would not consider the issue as the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the legislature.
On behalf of the Center, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that it would be like making a law. It comes under the jurisdiction of the legislature. Omitting a provision would lead to a situation where there would be no minimum age for marriage of women. On this, the Chief Justice had said that if the court would consider this argument, it would be like directing the Parliament to fix the minimum age.
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