Supreme Court to hear same-sex marriage plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine pleas seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act as it issued notice to the Centre on the petition.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Dhananjay Y Chandrachud and justice Hima Kohli issued a notice to the Centre and attorney general on the petition.

The top court also noted that various pleas relating to samesex marriage issues are being heard in various high courts, including Kerala and Delhi. It also noted the Centre made a statement before the high court that the ministry was taking steps to transfer all pleas to the Supreme Court.

Two petitions have been filed, petition, the first by a couple that evoked India’s Special Marriage Act, a law that originally legalised interfaith unions. The couple drew on earlier landmark rulings in India, including one declaring privacy a fundamental right and another that decriminalized gay sex in 2018.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the petition did not touch on the personal laws but only sought to make the 1954 Act gender-neutral. “The Act only says marriage should be between ‘two persons’. It does not say it is a union of A and B,”

THE PLEA EVOKES INDIA’S SPECIAL MARRIAGE ACT, WHICH LEGALISED INTERFAITH UNIONS, SEEKING TO MAKE IT GENDER-NEUTRAL