'Last chance to reply' on pleas to recognise same-sex marriage
New delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday granted a last opportunity to the Delhi government and the Centre to respond to three separate pleas, including by two couples, seeking that same-sex marriage be recognised by law.
A bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Sanjeev Narula which had earlier issued notice and directed the Delhi government and the Centre to file replies, said, "one last opportunity be given to the respondents to file counter affidavits within three weeks".
The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 25, after the Centre's counsel submitted that they have received instructions from concerned officers last week and need some time to file
the reply.
In the first petition, Abhijit Iyer Mitra and three others have contended that marriages between same-sex couples are not possible despite the Supreme Court decriminalising consensual homosexual acts and sought a declaration to recognise same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) and Special Marriage Act (SMA).
The two other pleas are - one filed by two women seeking to get married under the SMA and challenging provisions of the statute to the extent it does not provide for same-sex marriages, and the other by two men who got married in the US but were denied registration of their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act (FMA).
The petition filed by equal rights activists Mitra, Gopi Shankar M, Giti Thadani and G Oorvasi contended that homosexuality has been decriminalised by the apex court but same-sex marriages are still not being allowed under the HMA provisions.
This is despite the fact that the said Act does not distinguish between heterosexual and homosexual marriage if one were to go by how it has been worded. It very clearly states that marriage can indeed be solemnised between 'any two Hindus'.
In this view of the matter, it can be stated that it is against the constitutional mandate of non-arbitrariness if the said right is not extended to homosexual apart from heterosexual couples, the petition, filed through Raghav Awasthi and Mukesh Sharma, said.
The Centre had earlier told the high court that marriage between same-sex couples was "not permissible" as it was not recognised by "our laws, legal system, society and our values".
The petition said the case for extending the same right of marriage to 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender' (LGBT) persons as those enjoyed by everyone else is neither radical nor complicated and rests on two fundamental principles that underpin International Human Rights Law — equality and non-discrimination.
It sought a declaration stating that Section 5 of the HMA does not distinguish between homosexual and heterosexual couples and the right of same-sex couples to marry should be recognised under the Act.
The two women, who were represented by senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy and lawyers Arundhati Katju, Govind Manoharan and Surabhi Dhar, have said in their plea that they have been living together as a couple for 8 years, in love with each other sharing the highs and lows of life, but unable marry as they are a same sex couple.
The women, aged 47 and 36, have contended that not being allowed to get married has denied them several rights — like owning a house, opening a bank account, family life insurance — which opposite-sex couples take for granted.
The two men, also represented by the same set of lawyers, were married in the United States, but their marriage was not registered under the FMA by the Indian consulate as they were a same-sex couple.
