The Supreme Court has constituted a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud to hear a batch of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
Besides, Chief Justice Chandrachud, the bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Ravindra Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha will hear the matter on (Tuesday) April 18, 2023.
This emerged from the cause list of the matters listed for the next week. The top court had on March 13 referred the matter to a five-judge constitution bench as a bench of Chief Justice Chandrachud, Justice Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala had noted a variance between the existing marriage laws and the constitutional rights being traced in its judgments recognizing right to privacy as a fundamental right and decriminalizing same sex relationship.
The court is seized of a batch of petitions relating to the issue of same sex marriage, challenging the denial of the access to the to the institution of marriage to the members of the LGBTQ plus community as being in contravention of Part III of the Constitution, including Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21.
The petitioners have invoked their fundamental rights seeking legal recognition of same sex marriage.
The Centre has opposed it on the ground that such questions ought to be left to the legislature which is representative of the will of the people.
The Centre, in its affidavit, has opposed the plea seeking legal recognition of same sex marriage, saying that living together as partners by same sex individuals, which is decriminalized now, is not comparable with the Indian family unit and they are clearly distinct classes which cannot be treated identically.
The Centre has said that the moment the same sex marriage is recognized as an institution, the question will come on the adoption of child, and then the parliament will have to look at the impact of same sex parenting on the psychology of a child.