Legal Conundrum
India Legal|March 15, 2021
In an affidavit to the Delhi High Court, the centre said that decriminalisation of Section 377 of the IPC does not automatically translate into the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples
Legal Conundrum

THE centre has sought dismissal of pleas to recognise same-sex marriages under the Special Marriage Act. It claimed that same-sex couples living together as partners and having a sexual relationship is not comparable to the Indian family concept of a husband, wife and children.

Opposing a batch of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages, the centre in an affidavit on February 25 told the Delhi High Court that decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code does not automatically translate into the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples.

The centre submitted that “registration of marriage of same-sex persons also results in violation of existing personal as well as codified law provisions—such as ‘degrees of prohibited relationship’; ‘conditions of marriage’; ‘ceremonial and ritual requirements’ under the personal laws governing the individuals”.

Referring to the Supreme Court verdict in Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India case, which struck down Section 377, the centre argued that it was “only a limited declaration to decriminalise a particular human behaviour, which was a penal offence under Sec 377 IPC”. It further stated that neither the Puttu swamy judgment (one of India’s most noted privacy cases) nor the Navtej Singh Johar case allows for the recognition of marriage between individuals of the same gender.

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