Delhi High Court to hear pleas seeking Uniform Civil Code on Dec 1

The Delhi High Court Monday listed for hearing on December 1 a batch of petitions seeking a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and observed that it "cannot do anything" if the issue has already been decided by the Supreme Court. A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan observed that in March, a top court bench had already declined a plea for "gender neutral" and "religion neutral" laws filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, one of the petitioners before the high court as well. The court deferred further hearing on the petitions while noting that none appeared for the petitioners during the proceedings and Upadhyay was yet to place on record his prayers in the petition before the Supreme Court. "Supreme Court has already decided the matter virtually... If the matter is covered by Supreme Court then we can't do anything," the bench, also comprising Justice Mini Pushkarna said. In April, a division bench headed by the then Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had said that Upadhyay's ...