CJI says ‘making such a law is domain of Parliament’
Team News Riveting
New Delhi, October 17
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said no to the same sex marriage and asserted that it cannot legalise it.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud heard arguments in the case between April and May this year and pronounced its verdict on Tuesday. Chandrachud said there was a degree of “agreement and disagreement on how far we have to go” on same-sex marriages as he began reading his order.
Two of the other four judges agreed with Chandrachud on the court not legalising same-sex marriages, making it a majority. The court ruling comes five years after a historic 2018 judgement when the Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex.
The lead petition was filed by Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang, two gay men living in Hyderabad. They have been a couple for almost 10 years and contracted COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic. When they recovered, they decided to have a wedding-cum-commitment ceremony to celebrate the ninth anniversary of their relationship.
However, despite the same, they do not enjoy the rights of a married couple, the plea pointed out. It was also contended that the Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy case, held that LGBTQIA+ persons enjoy the right to equality, dignity and privacy guaranteed by the Constitution on the same footing as all other citizens.
The Central government opposed the petitions in Court, saying that same-sex couples living together as partners and having sexual relationships is not comparable to the Indian family unit concept, which involves a biological man and a biological woman with children born out of such wedlock. The government also underlined that there can be no fundamental right for recognition of a particular form of social relationship.
The government opposed the petitions, calling them “urban elitist views” and stating that Parliament is the right platform to debate and legislate on the matter.
Only Taiwan and Nepal allow same-sex unions in Asia, where largely conservative values still dominate politics and society.
