SC sends Centre notice seeking legal recognition to same-sex marriage

On Friday, the Supreme Court sent a notice to the Centre in response to a request that the Special Marriage Act be amended to recognise same-sex unions and alliances between members of the LGBTQI+ community, also known as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning (LGBTQI+) community.

Notices must also be sent to the Attorney General of India, according to a division bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. After four weeks, the court will hear the case.

Couples who are unable to wed under their personal law have a legal form of marriage available to them according to the Special Marriage Act of 1954.

A lesbian couple had petitioned the Supreme Court for legal recognition of their same-sex union under the Special Marriage Act and for the court to deliver the proper instructions to the relevant authorities so that they might legally wed.

The lack of a legal framework allowing members of the LGBTQ+ community to wed anyone of their choosing was brought up in the petition.

According to the petition, the couple sought to enforce the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ individuals to marry any person of their choice and said that “the exercise of which ought to be insulated from the disdain of legislative and popular majorities”.

The petitioners additionally argued that they had a basic right to wed one another and asked this Court for the proper instructions to enable them to do so.

The petitioners, who are both LGBTQ+ individuals, claimed that the right to associate with as many people as one wishes is a basic freedom guaranteed to every “person” by the Indian Constitution and has been expressly acknowledged by this court.

They emphasised that the Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that LGBTQ+ people have the same basic rights as other citizens in terms of human and constitutional rights.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community cannot currently marry the partner of their choice and exercise the fundamental right that has been guaranteed to them by our Constitution due to the legal framework that governs the institution of marriage in this country.