THE Delhi high court has sought response from the Centre and the Consulate General of India, New York following a fresh petition that seeks legal recognition to all same-sex marriages under the Foreign Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act.
On Tuesday (6), a bench of chief justice D.N. Patel and justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to hear the latest petition on August 27 alongside the four other pending petitions of the same kind.
The latest petition has been filed by a married same-sex couple -- Joydeep Sengupta, an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder, and Russell Blaine Stephens, a US citizen.
They got married in New York on August 6, 2012, and were recognised as a legally married couple in the US, France, and Canada – where they have primarily lived and worked in the last 20 years.
The couple is expecting their first child this month.
Since Stepens wished to apply for OCI status under Section 7A(1)(d) of the Citizenship Act in order to be entitled to multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting India, the couple filed a petition in the court.
Advocate Karuna Nundy, representing the couple, said their petition is seeking a declaration that the Foreign Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act be read in accordance with the Constitution.
The petition sought a direction from the court to restrain the Consulate General of India, New York from declaring spouse of an OCI cardholder applying for an OCI card, ineligible on the ground that they were in a same-sex marriage.
“The right to marry a person of one’s choice as an essential component of the right to autonomy, privacy within Article 21 has been recognised by a catena of judgments in India,” the petition stated.
In a separate petition on recognition of same-sex marriage, Abhijit Iyer Mitra and three others have challenged that marriages between same-sex couples are not possible despite the supreme court decriminalising consensual homosexual acts.
It sought a declaration to recognise same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) and Special Marriage Act (SMA).
Besides, there are two other pleas pending before the court.
One is filed by two women seeking to get married under the SMA, and the other filed by two men who got married in the US but were denied registration of their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act (FMA).
Earlier the central government opposed same-sex marriage on the ground that marriage in India is not just a union of two individuals but an institution between biological man and woman.
It also said that judicial interference will cause "complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws".
