Indian Solicitor General: Can't Legalise Same-Sex Marriage For Not Knowing Who Is The Man Or Woman

Though many countries have voiced their approval during recent years, same-sex marriage in India is still a controversial topic and hasn’t been legalized yet.

In fact, two years ago, the Supreme Court had decriminalized Section 377 IPC which reads “whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished…” However, the government hasn’t introduced any law to recognize the legality of same-sex marriage after that.

Members of the LGBTQ community, accordingly, are requesting the Delhi high court to legalize same-sex marriage under the Hindi Marriage Act but the Centre opposes their proposal, citing the civil laws of a legal marriage between “biological man and woman” only.

According to petitioners, a legal marriage between any two Hindus should be recognized regardless of their gender as this is the common human right. However, the solicitor general Tushar Mehta represents the Centre in denying the LGTBQ plea. He said the legalization of same-sex marriage in India might lead to some conflicts with the country’s statutory laws.

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He took the example that in a same-sex marriage, it’s hard to decide who would be the man or the woman to apply the statutory laws if necessary. In case household violence took place, who would be the woman to benefit from the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act?

The solicitor general also cited other situations in which the husband or wife was involved in legal issues based on their man-woman role in the family. By saying this, he wanted to draw the High Court’s attention to the problems that might arise if same-sex marriage in India were legalized.

Mehta said the problem required a lot of amendments to related criminal and civil laws, so we had better leave the decision for the Parliament who would debate and vote for final result.

Meanwhile, the High Court emphasized that the world was changing and the laws might be different but not every change could be applicable to India at the moment.

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