New Delhi: The Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage today i.e. 17 October. The apex court had reserved its judgment on 11 May on a batch of pleas seeking legal validation for same-sex marriage.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) directed the State and Central governments to ensure that there is no discrimination in access to goods and services to the queer community and the government must sensitize the public about queer rights. For the same purpose, the court ordered the government to create a hotline for the queer community, ‘Garima Grih’, for queer couples who face violence and ensure inter-sex children are not forced to undergo operations.
While delivering the judgement, the bench noted that same-sex marriage is confined to Special Marriage Act 1954 and shall not deal with the Hindu Marriage Act. “I have said the Special Marriage Act is violative of Article 14. But there are interpretative limitations in including homosexual unions in it. As rightly pointed by Solicitor General, tinkering with Special Marriage Act can have a cascading effect…”, noted Justice Kaul while delivering the judgement.
Meanwhile, the Centre has been opposing the pleas filed for same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court arguing that the legislative policy of India has consciously validated a union only between a biological man and a biological female.
The five-judge Constitution bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices SK Kaul, SR Bhat, Hima Kohli, and PS Narsimha. During the course of hearings, the petitioners said that India is a marriage-based culture and LGBT couples should be granted the same rights as any Heterosexual couples. This also means granting the status of spouse in financial and insurance issues, medical, inheritance, succession decisions, and even in adoption and surrogacy matters.