Same-sex marriage: SC to consider pleas seeking review of verdict

The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider on July 10 a batch of pleas seeking review of its last years judgement which refused to accord legal recognition to samesex marriageAccording to the cause list of July 10 uploaded on the apex court website a fivejudge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud would consider inchamber the pleas seeking review of the October 17 last year verdictAs per the practice the review pleas are considered inchamber by fivejudge benchesBesides the CJI the other members of the bench will be Justices Sanjiv Khanna Hima Kohli B V Nagarathna and P S NarasimhaIn a setback to gay rights activists the apex court had on October 17 last year refused to accord legal recognition to samesex marriage saying there was no unqualified right to marriage with the exception of those that are recognised by lawThe apex court however had made a strong pitch for the rights of queer people so they dont face discrimination in accessing goods and services that are available to others safe houses known as Garima Greh in all districts to provide shelter to members of the community facing harassment and violence and dedicated hotline numbers which they could use in case of troubleHolding that transgender people in heterosexual relationships have the freedom and entitlement to marry under the existing statutory provisions the top court had said an entitlement to legal recognition of the right to union akin to marriage or civil union or conferring legal status to the relationship can be only done through enacted lawA fivejudge constitution bench headed by CJI Chandrachud had delivered four separate verdicts on a batch of 21 petitions seeking legal sanction for samesex marriagesAll the five judges were unanimous in refusing to accord legal recognition to samesex marriage under the Special Marriage Act and had observed it was within Parliaments ambit to change the law for validating such unionWhile the CJI had written a separate 247page verdict Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul since retired had penned a 17page judgement in which he broadly agreed with Justice Chandrachuds viewsJustice S Ravindra Bhat since retired who authored an 89page judgement for himself and Justice Hima Kohli had disagreed with certain conclusions arrived at by the CJI including on applicability of adoption rules for queer couplesJustice PS Narasimha had said in his 13page verdict that he was in complete agreement with the reasoning given and conclusions arrived at by Justice BhatThe judges were unanimous in holding that queerness is a natural phenomenon and not urban or elite occurrenceIn his judgement the CJI had recorded the assurance by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Centre will constitute a committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for the purpose of defining and elucidating the scope of entitlements of queer couples who are in unionThe LGBTQIA rights activists who had won a major legal battle in 2018 in the Supreme Court which decriminalised consensual gay sex had moved the apex court seeking validation of samesex marriage and consequential reliefs such as rights to adoption enrolment as parents in schools opening of bank accounts and availing succession and insurance benefitsSome of the petitioners had urged the apex court to use its plenary power prestige and moral authority to push the society to acknowledge such a union which would ensure LGBTQIA lead a dignified life like heterosexualsLGBTQIA stands for lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning intersex pansexual twospirit asexual and allied personsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever