The crowd at Humsafar Trust’s office in Santacruz applauded as Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud read parts of his judgment and said, “It is not just an English-speaking man in a white-collar job who can claim to be queer, but equally a woman working in an agricultural job in a village.” This judgment on same-sex marriage and non-heterosexual adoption rights was expected to change not only the lives of the LGBTQ+ community forever but also to fundamentally alter the way Indian society functions. More cheers and high-fives followed as both he and the second senior-most judge, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, jointly struck down specific guidelines under the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), which barred same-sex or unmarried couples from jointly adopting.

Short-lived happiness

A mountain of disappointment began to cast its shadow on the queer community as the third judge, Justice Ravindra Bhat, of the five-judge bench, started reading his portion on adoption rights, expressing his disagreement with certain parts of the judgment by the first two judges.  While Justice Ravindra Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice P S  Narasimha were in agreement with the other two over the rights of adoption, marriage and a life with dignity for the LGBTQ+ community, they were of the opinion that the court would be overstepping its jurisdiction and left the issue for Parliament to decide. The court, though, has allowed states to enact laws recognising same-sex marriage in the absence of any Central laws.