The enactment of State-level Uniform Civil Codes raises complex questions about federalism and constitutional competence. Critically examine.

Article 44 directs the State to endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code, but places it in Part IV as a non-justiciable Directive Principle [1]. With Uttarakhand's UCC operative from January 2025 [2] and West Bengal's Cabinet clearing a Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai panel to vet its draft Bill in July 2026 [4], codification has shifted to the States — legally sustainable, yet federally contested.

Case for State competence

• Legislative entry: marriage, divorce, succession and adoption fall under Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, so States may legislate on personal law subjects [1].
• Article 44 binds "the State" — under Article 12 this includes State legislatures, not Parliament alone [1].
• Working precedent: the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024 (Act 3 of 2024) received Presidential assent, the Article 254(2) route for surmounting repugnancy with central law [2].
• Cooperative-federal logic: States act as laboratories, testing reforms — polygamy bans, gender parity in ancestral property — before any national code.

Federal and constitutional difficulties

• Repugnancy is only provisional: under Article 254, a State UCC yields to any future Central UCC, and divergent State codes produce a patchwork that defeats the very uniformity sought [1].
• Assent politics: reliance on Governor and Presidential discretion draws the Union executive into what is formally a State legislative choice.
• Rights ceiling: codes must survive scrutiny under Articles 25 and 29; the Adivasi exemption, protected by the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, itself concedes that uniformity cannot be absolute [4].
• Process concern: the Law Commission's 2018 consultation paper favoured targeted reform within personal laws over a UCC at that stage [3]; compressed State timelines risk thin consultation.

State competence is thus real but partial — sufficient to legislate, insufficient to deliver national uniformity. The durable path lies in Centre–State deliberation through the Inter-State Council and a Law Commission-anchored model code, so that Article 44 advances gender justice while honouring the fraternity and pluralism the Preamble guarantees.