Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriage: India’s Top Court To Deliver Verdict Today (Image:pixabay)
The Supreme Court of India will deliver its verdict on a bunch of petitions demanding the legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the country on Tuesday. The ruling is tremendously anticipated as it has the potential to generate monumental impacts in the world’s most populous country as well as the biggest of democracies. The case can be considered as an extension to the 2018 SC judgement scrapping the ban on gay sex. Among the Asian countries, only Taiwan and Nepal allow legal same-sex unions.
The hearings on the matter, lasted ten days, were held between March and April of this year and the five-judge bench reserved the judgment on May 11, over 20 petitions. The bench is comprised of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha.
The petitions were filed in request to grant the same-sex couple equal rights as the heterosexual couples in matters of marriage, adoption, succession, inheritance, and divorce. According to the petitioners, they are facing discrimination despite of the 2018 judgement, and an absence of the legal framework for same-sex marriage violates their rights which are granted by the Constitution of the nation. If the recognition is granted, it will bring significant changes in the Indian society as well as the nation’s personal laws extending up to a reformulation of the family laws.
The central government under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had opposed the matter calling it as an “urban elitist view”, and stated that a parliament discussion is the right thing to hold on deciding it. They observed that same-sex marriages are not the least comparable with the concept of Indian family, which “consist of husband, wife, and children”.
It was on September 6, 2018, the five-judge Supreme Court bench struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal code and decriminalized the same-sex relations between consenting adults. The verdict allows LGBT individuals to engage in consensual intercourse.
