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@article{202052,
author = {Disha Kaushik},
title = {Beyond Uniformity: Reconstructing Rule of Law within India’s Multireligious Family Law Framework},
journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
year = {2026},
volume = {12},
number = {12},
pages = {8737-8741},
issn = {2349-6002},
url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=202052},
abstract = {The Indian legal system is one of the world’s most heterogeneous and complex constitutional democracies in which plurality of legal forms coexists with constitutional supremacy. In India, the family laws, whether religious or state, are still framed through religion-based personal law systems that govern marriage, divorce, succession, maintenance, guardianship, and adoption. Even as these individual laws protect and establish cultural identity and religious freedoms, they also bring into dispute constitutional norms on equality, gender justice, secularism, dignity, and the Rule of Law. This debate about the Uniform Civil Code has been traditionally framed as a contention between equality guaranteed by the Constitution and freedom of religion. Yet this article contends that the real constitutional challenge is not around achieving legal uniformity, but about reassembling the Rule of Law in a way that can reconcile constitutional morality with genuine pluralism. I critically examine the extent to which India’s regime of multireligious family law is in harmonious harmony with constitutional principles, including Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, and 44 (Constitution of India). It then investigates the judiciary's work in constitutionalizing family law in relation to transformative constitutional interpretation and progressive jurisprudence. Grounded in the study of landmark judicial judgments, feminist legal theory, legal pluralism, and constitutional morality, the article contends for a principled constitutional reconciliation instead of legal uniformity. Finally, the article suggests that the evolution direction of Indian family law hinges on the re-constitution of Rule of Law as one of the constitutional principles of democracy that not only safeguards equality, dignity, and justice but respects India’s diverse society of minorities. Keywords: Rule of Law, Family Law, Legal Pluralism, Constitutional Morality, Uniform Civil Code, Gender Justice.},
keywords = {Rule of Law, Family Law, Legal Pluralism, Constitutional Morality, Uniform Civil Code, Gender Justice.},
month = {May},
}
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