Optimizing the Judicial Interventions in Harmonizing the Conflicting Personal Laws for Preserving Indian Democracy

Abstract

Democracy stands for the will of the people who are equal, and free from discrimination. A democratic society is based on the principles of egalitarianism. However, a nation like India is a pluralistic society with multiple diversities amongst its citizens ranging from religious to linguistic diversities. In such a pluralistic society, every community has their own set of Personal Laws different in ideologies, culture, and traditions governing the private life that shall be independent from the State interventions for preserving individual liberty. However, conflicting provisions of such Personal Laws are alleged for promoting discrimination among members of a particular community as well as within different communities. Such discriminatory provisions of personal laws often conflict with the ideals of a democratic society. Indian Judiciary being the custodian of the world's largest democracy, assumes a significant role in defending such ideals of democracy. In such situations it becomes necessary to optimize and evaluate the Judicial interventions in cases involving conflicts between the various provisions of Personal Laws and the ideals of the Indian democracy as provided by the Constitution of India. The paper thus highlights some of the basic parameters on the lines of which, the interventions of Indian Judiciary have been analyzed to understand the achievement made by the Judiciary in addressing the conflicting Personal Laws for preserving the ideals of democracy.

Keywords: Democracy, Indian Judiciary, Judicial Review, Personal Laws, Uniform Civil Code