India’s top court declines to recognize same-sex marriage

By Anadolu staff

NEW DELHI (AA) – India’s top court declined Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriages with its chief justice saying the judicial body “court can't make law. It can only interpret it and give effect to it.”

A constitution bench led by Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud had reserved the May 11 verdict after hearing arguments in 21 petitions that sought legal validation for same-sex marriages.

The other judges comprised of Justice Sanjay Kaul, Justice Bhat, and Justice Narasimha.

“There are four judgments. There is judgment by me, Justice (Kishan) Kaul, Justice (Ravindra) Bhat and Justice (P.S)” Narasimha. There is a degree of agreement and a degree of disagreement on how far one has to go. As I see, the degree of disagreement is on how far, we have to go,” Chandrachud said in the judgment.

Justice Hima Kohli also ruled on the matter.

The court directed federal and state governments to ensure the queer community is not discriminated against. It also said, “Homosexuality or queerness is not urban or elite.”

Chandrachud maintained it is for parliament to decide if there is a need to change the regime of the Special Marriage Act. The statute allows interfaith marriage under the Special Marriage Act enacted in 1954.

Indian legal website Livelaw reported that “however, all the judges on the bench agreed to direct the Union of India to constitute a committee to examine the rights and entitlements of persons in queer union, without legal recognition of their relationship as a ‘marriage.’”

M.R. Shamshad, a New Delhi-based Advocate-on-Record at the Indian Supreme Court, who opposed the petitioners, told Anadolu that the petitioners were seeking the same rights under different laws, especially the Special Marriage Act.

The judgment came five years after a judgment in 2018 when the Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex.