The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre based on a plea seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli has agreed to hear the petitions on this issue. The petitions pending in different High Courts including Kerala would be transferred to the Supreme Court and heard together.
The top court issued separate notices to the Government as well as the Attorney General of India and listed the matter for hearing in four weeks. A Hyderabad-based couple Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Danghad filed a plea in the apex court seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act and to issue appropriate direction to authorities concerned to allow them to solemnize their marriage.
The petition raised the absence of a legal framework that allowed members of the LGBTQ+ community to marry any person of their choice. According to the petition, the couple sought to enforce the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ individuals to marry any person of their choice and said that, "the exercise of which ought to be insulated from the disdain of legislative and popular majorities."
The petitioners, further, asserted their fundamental right to marry each other and prayed for the apprpetitioners filed the Public Interest Litigation under Article 32 of the Constitution of India
The Public Interest Litigation was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India by the petitioners and was in the interest of the LGBTQ+ community.
The petitioners, who are both members of the LGBTQ+ community, submitted that the right to many a person of one's choice is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution of India to each "person" and has been recognized explicitly by this Court. They stressed that the top court has also expressly held that members of the LGBTQ+ community have the same human, fundamental and constitutional rights as other citizens.
However, the legal framework governing the institution of marriage in this country does not presently allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to many the person of their choice and enforce the fundamental right guaranteed to them under our Constitution.
The petitioners submit that this is violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution, including Articles 14, 15, 19(1)(a), and 21.
The petitioners have filed the present petition to assert for themselves, and for all members of the LGTBQ+ community, the fundamental right to many any person of their choice, irrespective of gender identity and sexual orientation.
The petitioners said that they have been in love with each other and have had a relationship with each other for the last seventeen years and are presently raising two children together, but unfortunately the fact that they cannot legally solemnize their marriage has resulted in a situation where both petitioners cannot have a legal relationship between parents and children with both of their kids.
(With ANI Inputs)