“India doesn’t have a national anti-discrimination law that protects sexual orientation,” he says. Sahgal adds that if the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage, LGBTQ+ individuals could continue to face discrimination in public services, renting, or adoption. “And similar to the U.S., we might see judges wanting to write separate or concurring opinions.” “It’s hard to say exactly when because the final verdict will be a written verdict, which can take time,” says Kanav Sahgal from the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, an independent legal think-tank in India. On Sunday, Reuters reported that the government submitted another 102-page document in court, arguing that the petitions “merely reflect urban elitist views” and that recognition of same-sex marriage would mean a “virtual judicial rewriting of an entire branch of law.” What happens next? “Living together as partners and having a sexual relationship by same-sex individuals… is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife, and children,” the ministry argued. Nevertheless, the Indian government preemptively urged the Supreme Court to reject all pleas challenging the current legal framework, saying that there was a “legitimate state interest” in limiting the legal recognition “to marriage/union/relation as being heterosexual in nature,” according to the legal filing seen by Reuters. According to Pink List India, the country’s first archive of politicians supporting LGBTQ+ rights, 115 of 161 Members of Parliament who have publicly weighed in on the same-sex marriage debate have expressed support, with most of them belonging to the ruling BJP. Another Pew survey in 2020 found that 37% of people believed that same-sex marriage should be accepted in the country, up from 15% in 2014.īut the Indian government, led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has formally opposed the issue of same-sex marriage, even as many lawmakers take a different view. A 2021 Ipsos survey found that 58% of Indians believe that same-sex couples should be allowed some sort of legal recognition, and 66% believe that same-sex couples should be able to adopt children. India’s penal code, introduced under British rule in 1862, criminalized all homosexual acts by deeming them “against the order of nature.” That remained the case until the colonial-era law was struck down in 2018 by the Supreme Court.Īs a result of the landmark 2018 ruling, acceptance of homosexuality has grown in India. What are India’s current laws on LGBTQ+ issues? “With the Constitution in our hearts, we go back to our court, for complete equality, full dignity, and freedom worthy of our citizenship,” Guruswamy tweeted on Wednesday. Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju, LGBTQ+ lawyers also representing the petitioners, have echoed a similar argument. He added that the issue was about fundamental rights and should not be left in the hands of parliament. If you deny me citizenship, you are saying, ‘you’re no good, you’re not equal to a citizen under preamble so you stay where you are’,” Mukul Rohatgi, Chakraborty and Dange’s lawyer, argued in court on Tuesday. “When you deny me the right of marriage, you deny me citizenship. The hearings for the petitions, which were directed to the Supreme Court on March 13 and began on April 14, argue for the legal recognition of same-sex marriage and their right to adopt as a matter of equality. The petitioners are primarily focused on whether the Special Marriage Act of 1954, which amended India’s constitution to allow civil marriages between couples from different castes and religions, can be extended to include LGBTQ+ individuals. What do the pro-same-sex marriage petitions argue?
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