Col. Manoj Pal
New Delhi (India), Monday, December 19, 2022: American President Joe Biden a couple of days back has signed to the effect to convert a Bill into an Act (Law) to legalise same sex marriages in America. A new debate on the platter to discuss this issue here in India. Four gay couples have filed a petition in the Honourable Supreme Court to recognize the same sex marriage. The Modi lead BJP government is against the proposal and lot of debate, discussion and narratives will be built over it as the Supreme Court is to seek the Government’s view on this issue.
The readers may remember and recollect that IPC Section which stipulated homosexuality as crime was scrapped by the Apex Court in its historic verdict in 2018. There were lot of views against the judgement as to morality and such acts were considered against the law of nature. However, the Apex Court decriminalized homosexuality and removed the ban on gay sex. The people of India, despite of above verdict, do not accept such relations of LGBT Community as healthy for the society.
Taking a lead from the previous judgement and recent decision of President Joe Biden government to legalize same sex marriage, the couples who have filed the petition that without legal recognition of being married, they are denied rights such as those linked to medical consent, pensions, adoption or even simpler things like club membership for couples. There are four petitions filed by couples belonging to LGBT community.
Uday Raj Anand, a businessman and the litigant who want to marry his partner Parth Mehrotra, Chief Editor of India’s Juggernaut Books states that we can not do so many things in the process of living together and building a life together. Another couple, Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang in their submission before the Apex Court stated that they held a two-day commitment ceremony last year like any other ‘Big Fat Indian wedding’ but after some time they realised; they could not take health insurance as couples or nominate each other in life insurance policies. De-facto, they do not have any legal rights. Whether the case is of denial of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India? How and when this imminent question before the Government of India and the honourable Supreme Court is answered?
India is a conservative society and it does consider homosexuality as a taboo barring a few who are not even faction of the 1.4 billion population. The pleadings of LGBT community couples before the Apex Court have triggered debate and discussion over prime time and find place in editorials of big newspapers. India is a democratic country and its roots are so embedded in the culture so strongly which considers it as a sin. Same sex marriages are influenced by the western nations which approve of this relationship.
However, it may be lucrative and appealing to some in the name of being different or towards gay rights, the same sex marriages are unethical and against the law of nature. The LGBT community have already been granted lot of privileges and rights not to be harassed by the law enforcement agencies and the public at large but legalizing such marriages would set a wrong precedence over the future generation. A lawmaker of the Indian Government appealed to the colleagues in the Rajya Sabha to oppose legal recognition of marriage between same-sex couples. This lawsuit filed before the Apex Court would be key test and a challenge for Modi’s nationalist government as this is against Sanatan Hindu traditions and culture.
