The story so far: A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a 3:2 verdict ruled against legalising same-sex marriage in India leaving it up to the legislature to decide if non-heterosexual unions can be legally recognised. The majority opinions were delivered by Justices S. Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli, and P.S. Narasimha, and the minority views by the Chief Justice D.Y Chandrachud and Justice S.K. Kaul.
The Bench however unanimously acknowledged that same-sex couples face discrimination and harassment in their daily lives and accordingly urged the government to form a high-powered committee chaired by the Union Cabinet Committee to expeditiously look into the concerns faced by them.
A crucial question before the Bench was whether the Constitution accords a fundamental right to marry, which the Bench unanimously answered in the negative. Although the CJI and Justice Kaul batted for civil unions (a marriage-like setup where the couple enjoys a catena of legal rights and protections) for non-heterosexual couples, opining that such a legal recognition represents a step towards marriage equality — however, the majority found that only an elected legislature is competent to bestow such a status because granting same-sex couples the right to enter into a union will involve changes to a vast range of “legislative architectures” and policies.
