Same sex marriage: All eyes on Supreme Court hearing today

Earlier, the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in India has come up for discussion in the Supreme Court which resumed the hearing as the arguments remained inconclusive on 27 April.

New Delhi: A five-member bench of Supreme Court Constitution headed by CJI DY Chandrachud will hear the plea on a batch of petitions on same sex marriage on Tuesday.

Earlier, the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in India has come up for discussion in the Supreme Court which resumed the hearing as the arguments remained inconclusive on 27 April. The SC had then asked Centre to come back on May 3 with its response on the social benefits that same sex couples can be granted even without legal recognition of their marital status. The court posed the question after observing that the Centre's acceptance of right to cohabitation of same sex partners as a fundamental right cast a “corresponding duty" on it to recognise its social consequences. Same-sex partners from around the country have approached the Supreme Court with a plea stating that same sex marriages should be legalised under the Special Marriage Act.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, hearing a batch of pleas seeking legal validation of same-sex marriage, took note of the submissions of the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, that “right to love, right to cohabit, right to choose one's partner, right to choose one’s sexual orientation" is a fundamental right.

"We don't go by either popular morality or segmental morality but what the Constitution mandates," the Supreme Court observed earlier when an argument was advanced before it that young same-sex couples across the country wanted to get married.