The world’s largest democracy’s top court ordered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to clarify its position on permitting same-sex marriages on Friday, in what is seen to be a significant step toward legal recognition of such unions. The applications for the recognition of same-sex weddings were bundled and handed to the Supreme Court on Friday. The Indian Supreme Court in New Delhi will now consider a number of these cases that were pending before various High courts around the nation.
A Supreme Court panel made up of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, and the other justices has ordered the government to respond by February 15 to every plea seeking to recognise same-sex unions legally. In March 2023, a single pooled petition including all petitions for the legal recognition of same-sex marriages would be made available.
Tushar Mehta, the second-highest ranking legal official in India, outlined two possibilities for the country’s legal treatment of same-sex unions. First, the Supreme Court might transfer all of the cases to itself or wait for the Delhi High Court’s decision on the legality of same-sex weddings in India. The supreme court chose the latter course.
A section of the Indian Penal Code known as Section 377 that criminalised same-sex relationships in India was overturned in September 2018 by a Supreme Court panel chaired by the country’s former Chief Justice, Dipak Misra. Since that historic decision, there has been a rising national movement in favour of legalising same-sex unions.
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