Article Abstract 2

India features a highly distinctive, pluralistic framework for personal laws, allowing different religious communities to follow their own distinct rules for marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship. While Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Parsis possess legally codified personal laws or state-recognized community boards, the Jewish community- one of India\'s oldest religious minorities- remains completely omitted from this regime. Settled in India for over two millennia and constitutionally recognized as a religious minority, Indian Jews observe Halakha (traditional Jewish law) in family matters. However, due to the lack of an official statutory framework or a personal law board, civil courts routinely apply default rules originally enacted for Christians, such as the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and the Divorce Act, 1869. Proving an independent customary exception is prohibitively expensive and legally volatile, forcing families to acquiesce to laws conflicting with their faith. This paper conducts a comprehensive doctrinal and comparative legal analysis, evaluating whether this legal vacuum violates minority cultural guarantees under Article 29(1) of the Indian Constitution, and assesses the feasibility of establishing a Jewish Personal Law Board vis-à-vis the Directive Principle of a Uniform Civil Code (Article 44). Incorporating legal models from Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this paper argues that a voluntary, rights-compliant, and progressive Jewish Personal Law Board is constitutionally viable and essential to preserving religious liberty and legal certainty.
Keywords: Jewish Personal Law, Halakha, Indian Constitution, Minority Rights, Personal Law Board, Legal Pluralism, Bene Israel, Cochin Jews, Baghdadi Jews, Uniform Civil Code, Gender Equality, Article 25, Article 26, Article 29, Article 14