In this judgment authored by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, and delivered today, the Supreme Court has upheld the validity of the Government servants conduct rules which prohibit second marriage when the first marriage is subsisting. The appellant, a Muslim, challenged the validity of the Conduct Rules, on the ground that it violates Article 25. The Court dismissed the contention by relying on Sarla Mudgal v Union of India , and Javed v State of Haryana. In Sarla Mudgal , the Court had suggested to the UOI to enact a Uniform Civil Code and in a case last year, the Delhi High Court dismissed a petition seeking a direction to the UOI to enact UCC. [The judgment is here]
In Javed, the challenge was against a law which sought to disqualify successful candidates in Panchayat elections, if they had more than two children. The Supreme Court upheld the law, and dismissed the challenge.
What one finds interesting in both Javed and Khursheed Ahmad Khan is that the Supreme Court has carefully avoided any reference to the enactment of UCC.
