Waves of disappointment as SC denies marriage equality

Four years ago, October 17 brought bliss into Bhawna Singh's life.

- Dhamini Ratnam and Dhrubo Jyoti

That autumn day, buoyed by the Supreme Court's landmark verdict decriminalising homosexuality in 2018, Singh decided to solemnise her relationship with her partner, Kajal Chauhan.

Battling threats of murder from homophobic parents and hostility from the authorities, the couple ran from their smalltown homes and met at a temple.

"Kajal put sindoor on my head. And I fasted for her that day since it was karwa chauth," she said.

October 17, 2023 was the anniversary of the ceremony that bound them together but simultaneously reminded them of their precarity as queer people in the absence of formal recognition. "I was really hoping we would have something to celebrate our anniversary," Singh said.

It was not to be. The 24-yearold felt her heart sink as she struggled to follow the rapidfire English judgments this windswept morning - their location remains undisclosed given the persistent threats from their families and only caught the word "no" repeated again and again.

"When the Navtej Johar verdict came out, we took strength from that and decided we could finally live together. Now, I feel bad for the couples who are living apart and facing violence from their families. This verdict would have left them hopeless," said Singh.

Singh and Chauhan are part of a 50-odd-strong club of people lawyers and actors, economists and students, therapists and businesswomen, dancers and consultants, sales executives and accountants who pushed the top court to legalise same-sex unions in a country that criminalised homosexuality with life imprisonment before September 2018.