India’s top court has declined to grant legal recognition to same- coitus marriages, saying it’s beyond its compass and should be decided by congress, but emphasizing that queer connections shouldn’t face demarcation by the state.
The marriage ruling will be a disappointment for LGBTQ people in India, who had hoped the supreme court judges would honor their indigenous right to marriage equivalency.
In a sign of how contentious the issue remains in India, the five- judge bench of the supreme court, led by the principal justice of India, said they had been divided on the matter, and four separate judgments were written by the bench. Two of the judges had supported same- coitus civil unions but the maturity verdict ruled against them.
Rohin Bhatt, one of the attorneys in the case, said “ moment the court has reaffirmed that queer citizens will be relegated to an unsympathetic council and an apathetic superintendent. We’re alternate- class citizens, no matter how numerous judicial tropes say else. We’ll rise in rage and kick. ”
In 2018 the supreme court scrapped a social- period law banning homosexuality in India. But while acceptance of homosexuality is growing, Indian society still remains largely conservative and there was resistance to opening up marriage to same- coitus couples, who still face rampant demarcation and importunity in society.
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Ankita Khanna, who was one of the pleaders in the case, said she was “ deeply disappointed ”. “ The sounds and the months later had given us a lot of stopgap that we were in the loftiest court of the country, and that our struggles were being heard and meditated upon deeply, ” she said.
“ But what we got moment was a deeply disunited judgment that was unclear about what the law could offer as relief to the challenges of our unstable and different queer lives. ” Khanna added “ Having said that, the queer community will continue to move forward in solidarity and with adaptability, as we always have. ”
The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party( BJP) government had opposed the case, calling the arguments for equivalency “ civic potty views ” and stating that marriages weren’t “ similar with the Indian family unit conception of a hubby, a woman
