Goa civil code

The Goa Civil Code, also called the Goa Family Law, is the set of civil laws that governs the residents of the Indian state of Goa. The Goan civil code was introduced after Portuguese Goa and Damaon were elevated from being mere Portuguese colonies to the status of a Província Ultramarina (Overseas possession). The Goan civil code is a Indianised variant of the Portuguese legal system that draws largely from the Napoleonic Code, a common legal system in a number of Continental European nations. Indian law mostly derives from English common law that was formulated and applied in British India, and remains pegged to developments in the "Charter of the British Commonwealth". With a number of amendments, following the Partition of India, Indian laws as a whole, have religion-specific civil codes that separately govern adherents of different religions; (like the Muslim and Hindu personal laws) and also has caste reservations. Goa and Damaon are an exception to that rule, in that a single code governs all the native Goans and the native Damanese of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa, irrespective of affiliation to religion, ethnicity and social strata. The English translation of the civil code is available on the Government of Goa's e-Gazette dated 19/10/2018.