No legalisation of same-sex marriage yet

“It would be entering into the realm of the legislature,” said CJI DY Chandrachud as the Supreme Court did not legalise same-sex marriage in India.

Transcript

00:00It lies within the domain of Parliament and the state legislatures to enact laws recognising

00:04and regulating queer marriage.

00:06Transgender persons in heterosexual relationships have the right to marry under existing law.

00:23Whether a change should be brought into the legislative regime of the SMA is for Parliament

00:27to determine.

00:28If this court takes the second approach and reads words into the provisions of the SMA

00:33and provisions of other allied laws such as the Indian Succession Act and Hindu Succession

00:37Act, it would in effect be entering into the realm of the legislature.

00:52The gender of a person is not the same as their sexuality.

00:57A person is a transgender person by virtue of their gender identity.

01:01A transgender person may be heterosexual or homosexual or of any other sexuality.

01:07If a transgender person is in a heterosexual relationship and wishes to marry their partner

01:12and if each of them meets the other requirements set out in the applicable law, such a marriage

01:16would be recognised by the law as governing marriage.

01:19Intersex persons who identify as either male or female have the right to marry under existing

01:24law.

01:27Homosexuality or queerness is not solely an urban concept nor is it restricted to the

01:46upper classes of privileged communities.

01:48People may be queer regardless of whether they are from villages, small towns or semi-urban

01:52and urban spaces.

01:54Similarly, they may be queer regardless of their caste and economic location.

01:58It is not just the English-speaking man with a white-collar job who lives in a metropolitan

02:02city and is otherwise affluent who can lay claim to being queer, but also and equally

02:07the woman who works in a farm in an agricultural community.

02:10In the words of a person assigned female at birth who worked at a factory in Ajmer, and

02:14I have quoted the quote,

02:23A failure to recognise such entitlements would result in systemic discrimination against

02:36queer couples.

02:38Unlike heterosexual couples who may choose to marry, queer couples are not conferred

02:42with the right to marry by statute.

02:44To remedy this, during the course of the hearing, the Solicitor General of India made a statement

02:48that a committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary will be constituted to set out the rights

02:52which should be available to queer couples and unions.

02:55The committee shall set out the scope of the benefits which accrue to such couples.

02:59This court has recognised that equality demands that queer unions, that queer persons are

03:04not discriminated against.