India top court to start hearing same-sex marriage case

Shruti Mahajan, Bloomberg News

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Gender rights activists and supporters of LGBTQ community walk the Delhi queer pride parade in New Delhi on Jan. 8, 2023. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)Sajjad Hussain/GETTY IMAGES EUROPE/TNS

A five-judge panel of India’s Supreme Court will begin hearing detailed arguments on April 18 in a landmark case seeking marriage equality for the country’s LGBTQ community.

The top court said the issue was of “seminal importance” and must be heard by a larger panel of judges. The order came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government opposed legalizing same-sex marriages and pressed for the issue to be debated and decided only by parliament.

The Indian constitution calls for cases involving crucial interpretations of the constitution to be heard by panels of at least five judges.

The petitions before the court seek marriage equality under various Indian statutes and religious personal laws. The push follows the decriminalization of homosexuality in 2018.

In a brief hearing Monday, lawyers for the petitioners highlighted that the court has already expanded various rights for the LGBTQ people, ranging from the right to privacy for personal choices to granting legal protection for “atypical” families.

The government’s counsel rested their argument on the so-called Indian concept of family — which the government has described as accepted “statutorily, religiously and socially” as between a biological man and a biological woman. A legislative debate on the issue would better reflect the views of society, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said.

If same-sex marriages are allowed, “we would be destroying the intent of the legislation,” Mehta added.

The Indian government’s position echoes that of Singapore — where sex between men was decriminalized in 2022 but the government amended the constitution to give parliament the authority to define marriage. As of now, that rules out same-sex couples.

A ruling in favor of the LGBTQ community will grant marriage equality to all of India’s 1.4 billion people and eventually cement rights such as adoption and inheritance.

Just a handful of places outside of the West — and only Taiwan in Asia — allow same-sex marriage. India’s court proceedings will be watched closely in countries like Thailand, Japan, Greece and South Korea where similar debates are taking place.