NEW DELHI – The two women fought their families, survived beatings, put up with death threats and were forcibly separated before they could live together as a couple. Now, they are fighting for their right to get married in India.
It is unclear how long the court will take to reach a decision, but a ruling in favour of the petitioners would make India an outlier for gay rights in Asia, where most countries still outlaw same-sex marriage. “The problem is this notion of fragility, which is just entirely self-created,” said Ms Menaka Guruswamy, a senior lawyer representing multiple petitioners in the case, including two lesbian couples and a trans woman.
Almost five years ago, the Supreme Court ushered in a new era for LGBTQ rights in India. The ban on gay sex, a vestige of the country’s colonial past, was “indefensible”, the court said in its unanimous order. In that groundbreaking case, the court ruled that “sexual autonomy of an individual” was at the core of “individual liberty”, and thus had no place in the country’s legal system.
Speaking on Tuesday before a bench of five judges, Mr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a lawyer and an opposition politician, who was representing a petitioner, urged the court to look beyond same-sex couples and clear the way for any “two consenting adults” willing to get married. Mr D.Y. Chandrachud, who is India’s chief justice and is among those hearing the case, took a different view. “There is no absolute concept of a man or an absolute concept of a woman,” he said, adding, “It’s far more complex, that’s the point.”
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