New Delhi: The Union government has opposed the legalisation of the same-sex marriage. In a counter affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in response to bunch of petitions seeking legalisation, the government has said the notion of marriage presupposes the union between two persons of opposite sex, LiveLaw reported.
The government said though the union of same-sex people has been decriminalised in India now as Section 377 of Indian Penal Code has been struck down, this does not meet the Indian concept of marriage.
“Family issues are far beyond mere recognition and registration of marriage between persons belonging to the same gender. Living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same sex individuals [which is decriminalised now] is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children which necessarily presuppose a biological man husband’.: biological woman as a ‘wife’ and the children born out of the union between the two who are reared by the biological man as father and the biological woman as mother,” the petition reads.
The government further submitted that any statutory recognition of marriage through various acts like the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Christian Marriage Act, 1872, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 or the Special Marriage Act, 1954 or the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, legitimises a marriage that is heterosexual in nature, and therefore, any other form of it is ‘unlawful’
“It is submitted that at this stage it is necessary to recognise that while there may be various other forms of marriages or unions or personal understandings of relationships between individuals in a society, the State limits the recognition to the heterosexual form. The State does not recognise these other forms of marriages or unions or personal understandings of relationships between individuals in a society but the same are not unlawful,” the petition said.
The Union government highlighted that not recognising same-sex marriages did not violate any fundamental rights.
Bar and Bench quoted the government’s petition thus:
“While it is certainly true that all citizens have a right to association under Article 19, there is no concomitant right that such associations must necessarily be granted legal recognition by the State. Nor can the right to life and liberty under Article 21 be read to include within it any implicit approval of same sex marriage,” the government said.
The government also said legalisation of same sex marriage will result in violation of existing personal as well as codified law provisions such as ‘degrees of prohibited relationship’, ‘conditions of marriage’ and ‘ceremonial and ritual requirements’ under personal laws governing the individuals, Bar and Bench reported.
The government gave the example of Domestic Violence Act and said it would be impossible to apply the above quoted and other statutory provisions workable in a same-sex marriage.
The petition was filed by Supriyo Chakraborthy and Abhay Dang, a gay couple, living together in Hyderabad for 10 years.