Indian Gay Couples Urge Supreme Court To Legalise Same-Sex Marriage

New Delhi: Four Indian gay couples have urged the Supreme Court to recognise same-sex marriages, setting the stage for a legal face-off with the Union government which has in the past refused to legalise such marriages.

In a historic verdict in 2018, the apex court decriminalised homosexuality by scrapping a colonial-era ban on gay sex. Despite the 2018 ruling, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community complain about a lack of acceptance and discrimination against gay people in Indian society.

LGBT activists say that while the 2018 ruling affirmed their constitutional rights, they are still deprived of legal backing for same-sex marriages, a basic right enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

In three Supreme Court filings, the couples say that without legal recognition of being married, they are denied rights such as those linked to medical consent, pensions, adoption or even simpler things like club memberships for couples.

Lawyers and a court document confirmed the fourth petition along similar lines was also filed in the court.

One of the couples, Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang, said in their submission that they held a two-day commitment ceremony last year like any other “Big Fat Indian wedding”, but once the euphoria faded, they realised they could not take health insurance as couples or nominate each other in life insurance policies.

The four gay couples want a Supreme Court ruling that modifies or interprets laws in a way that allows same-gender marriages, the court filings show.

It is a sensitive subject in the socially conservative country of 1.4 billion people, where speaking openly about homosexuality is taboo for many.

The pleas have already triggered a debate on prime-time TV news and generated editorials in newspapers about whether the time has come for the world’s largest democracy to join roughly three dozen countries where such marriages are legal.

On Monday, a federal lawmaker from the BJP appealed to colleagues in the Upper House of parliament to oppose legal recognition of marriage between same-sex couples.

“Same-sex marriage will cause havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country…two judges cannot take a decision on this social issue,” said Sushil Modi, a member of parliament from the BJP.

The Law Ministry has opposed same-sex marriages in the past and said courts should stay away from the law-making process that falls under parliament’s purview.

In one state court filing last year, the Law Ministry said a marriage depends on “age-old customs (and) rituals” and a sexual relationship between same-sex individuals is “not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children.”

It added that in India marriage is “a solemn institution between a biological man and a biological woman”.