Same Sex-Marriage: Mixed Reactions On Supreme Court’s Verdict (image-pixabay)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped short of legalizing same-sex marriage while stressing on the need to protect queer couples against discrimination. A five bench judge comprising of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha rules in 3:2 judgment against the legalizing of same sex marriage.
In response to the judgement, Senior advocate Geeta Luthra who appeared for some of the petitioners in the marriage equality case said, “Even if the right to marriage has not been given, Chief Justice of India has said that the same bundle of rights which every married couple has should be available to same-sex couples.”
While Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish Aggarwala welcomed the Supreme Court decision. “I am happy that Supreme Court of India has accepted the version of the government of India in which it argued that the court has no power to give this right of same-sex marriage”.
One of the petitioner and activist Anjali Gopalan said that they have been fighting for so long and will continue to fight. She expressed her disappointment in other judges for not agreeing with the adoption view of Chief Justice of India. This is democracy but we are denying basic rights to our own citizens, she added.
Advocate Karuna Nandy after the verdict commented that Rights of queer citizens must be protected. Mumbai Filim director and LGBTQ+ activist Onir said that he had expectations in today’s verdict but was disappointed.
“When the hearing started, they were really making good points. The suggestions that they gave to the police department for the implementation of the safety of LGBTQI people are very important… But after that, on the main topic, he said that the government should take this decision, and he left it to Parliament…” he said.
He also added that in 2018 the Supreme Court took a positive decision. He then criticized the government by saying that the decisions taken by the government are purely based on votes.
Nagpur RSS leader Sunil Ambedkar said that RSS welcomes Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. “It is correct that the parliamentary system in our democratic system is capable of addressing many issues to it. They can make appropriate decisions on it,” he added.
