SC seeks Centre's reply on PIL for uniform grounds of maintenance, alimony for all

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the Centre's response on a plea seeking uniform ''gender and religion neutral'' grounds for all citizens in awarding maintenance and alimony in matrimonial disputes. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notices to the Union ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Justice and the Women and Child Development on the PIL filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, heard senior advocate Meenakshi Arora on behalf of Upadhyay and said, ''We are issuing notice with great caution.'' The plea seeks a direction to the government to take appropriate steps to remove the prevailing anomalies in the grounds of maintenance and alimony and make them uniform for all citizens without discrimination on the basis of religion, race, cast, sex or place of birth

The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said despite the eloquent provisions in the Constitution, the Central government has totally failed to provide even gender-neutral, religion-neutral uniform grounds of maintenance and alimony for all citizens.