The recent comments of the Solicitor General about the unacceptability of marriage-equality in Indian culture in court proceedings challen...
The recent comments of the Solicitor General about the unacceptability of marriage-equality in Indian culture in court proceedings challenging Hindu marriage law attracted great controversy. Unfortunately, the comments distract from the substance of the challenge and need to contextualise it in Indian family law.
Since the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships in 2018, there has been much debate about the future of LGBT+ rights in India. This was natural since the Supreme Court while reading down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code had held that LGBT+ Indians would be entitled to equal constitutional citizenship, thereby hinting at the future expansion of civil rights.
Developments since, however, have not been promising. The Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, amidst much resistance from the community for disregarding the lived experiences of transgender persons in framing the law and for diluting their right to self-identification. Moreover, while discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity is constitutionally impermissible, limited to no efforts have been made to translate these rights into enforceable law.
The marriage question
In this context, some members of the LGBT+ community recently approached the High Court of Delhi in a public interest litigation asking for the recognition of same-sex marriage under the Hindu...
