A court in New Delhi has heard how India’s failure to allow same-sex marriage breaches its constitution. The claims came as the New Delhi High Court started to hear two cases.
In one, two women say officials denied their right to wed under the Special Marriage Act (SMA). The act became law in 1954 and allows Indians to marry whatever their caste or religion.
Meanwhile the court is also hearing the case of two men who tried to register their wedding in the US under India’s Foreign Marriage Act (FMA).
The petitioners say the ‘nonrecognition of same-sex marriages is a wanton act of discrimination that strikes at the root of dignity and self-fulfilment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer couples’.