India's Supreme Court rejects calls to legalise same-sex marriage
India, DY Chandrachud, said "that the court can neither strike down or read words into the Special Marriage Act to include same sex members within the ambit of the 1954 law".It is up to parliament and state legislatures to enact laws on marriage, the court said.But "queer persons", he said, do "have an equal right and freedom to enter into a union".The case was brought to the highest court in the land by 18 couples and petitioners seeking legal recognition of conjugal rights.They challenged the constitutionality of provisions of various marriage laws on the grounds that they are discriminatory and deny equality to citizens, a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution of India.
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Petitioners cited provisions of the Indian Constitution, the Human Rights Declaration of the United Nations, as well as various international conventions and laws passed in several other countries giving equal rights to the LGBTQ+ community.Religious groups, social organisations and some individuals joined ministers in opposing the case.Marriage is for a 'biological man' and a 'biological woman'In its arguments, the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi vehemently opposed the issue of equality as it does not align with the Indian concept of marriage and said only parliament could make new laws.The government argued that marriage is an exclusively heterogeneous institution between a "biological man" and a "biological woman".The creation or recognition of a new social institution altogether, it argued, "cannot be claimed as a matter of right or a choice, much less a fundamental right".Same-sex marriage is an "elitist, urban concept", it argued, adding that a judicial re-writing of an entire branch of law is down to parliament.The court said it was.
