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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday deferred the hearing on a batch of petitions to recognise same-sex marriage under various laws for April 24 next year.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was informed by the parties in the case that a similar issue is also pending before the Supreme Court.
The High Court is seized of several petitions by same-sex couples seeking a declaration recognising their marriages under the Special Marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act, and the Foreign Marriage Act.
Earlier, the Centre had opposed any changes to the existing laws on marriage to recognize same-sex marriage saying such interference would cause “a complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country”.
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“Living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same-sex individuals is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children which necessarily presuppose a biological man as a ‘husband’, a biological woman as a ‘wife’ and the children born out of the union between the two,” the Centre had argued.
On November 25, the Supreme Court sought the government’s response to pleas to allow solemnisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act.
The Special Marriage Act of 1954 provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal law.
Earlier, in 2018 the Supreme Court had decriminalised homosexuality, urging the LGBTQ+ community to forgive history for their “brutal” suppression.
A five-judge Constitution Bench had unanimously held that criminalisation of private consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was clearly unconstitutional.
The petitioners contended that marriages between same-sex couples are not possible despite the apex court decriminalising consensual homosexual acts.
