Our Laws, Values & Society Don’t Recognise Same-Sex Marriage, Centre Tells Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Union government is opposed to the idea of same-sex marriages.

Abhijit Iyer Mitra had filed a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking recognition and registration of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956.

On Monday, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta submitted before the division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan that such registration is not permissible as the prayer, if granted, would be contrary to the statutory provisions already in place.

“Our law, society, values don’t recognise marriage – which is a sacrament – between a same-sex couple,” Mehta said, adding that one has to be a man and the other a woman for a marriage to not fall within degrees of the prohibited relationship under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Mehta also argued that the judgment of Supreme Court constitutional bench “merely decriminalizes homosexuality or lesbians. Nothing more, nothing less”.

On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment ruled that homosexuality is not a criminal offence and any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation of the Indian Constitution.

The counsel representing Mitra had earlier submitted that such marriages were not being registered in absence of any declaration.

The high court adjourned the case to October and asked petitioner’s counsel to put on record facts or instances where persons are aggrieved of non-registration of such marriage.