Same sex-marriages: SC bench asks petitioners to conclude arguments on 24 April, here's more details
2 min read . Updated: 20 Apr 2023, 05:51 PM IST
Premium- Earlier on Wednesday, the apex court said that the matter needs to be finished in a time-bound manner as other cases waiting to be heard.
On the third day of hearing of the pleas seeking the legalisation of same-sex marriage in India, the Supreme Court constitutional bench -- led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and comprised justices Justices S K Kaul, S R Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha-- asked the petitioners to conclude their arguments on 24 April.
CJI Chandrachud, while concluding the day's hearing, read out the names of lawyers who would be arguing next - Geeta Luthra, Anand Grover, Jayna Kothari, Anitha Shenoy, Menaka Guruswamy, Saurabh Kirpal, Vrinda Grover, Karuna Nundy, Arundhati Katju, Raghav Awasthi, Shivam Singh, Namit Saxena and Manu Srinath.
During the hearing, when senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, appearing for the petitioners, appealed the Centre needs to tailor the Special Marriage Act. According to him, the centre needs to 'add husband, wife or 'spouse' in Special Marriage Act'.
He also cited US court judgments which upheld miscegenation laws which prohibited inter-racial marriages. The senior advocate even read out passages to argue that the argument against same-sex marriages are similar to those arguments against inter-racial marriages, reported Live Law.
When CJI Chandrachud said, “Same-sex couples seek the same benefits of marriage." KV Vishwanathan argued that LGBTQ parents are as qualified to rear children as the heterosexual parents. However, there has to be the availability of the choice.
Following this, CJI Chandrachud referred to the trolling he was subjected to yesterday over his “notion of a man and a woman is not an absolute based on genitals" statement, saying, “There are no absolutes as I said, even at the risk of getting trolled."
Among other things, CJI Chandrachud said that even popular countries like China are losing on demographic dividends. He added that highly educated young don't want to have children - that's a matter of choice.
On the issue of binary spouses essential or not, CJI Chandrachud said "We see these [same-sex] relationships not just as physical relations but something more of a stable, emotional relationship," asking, "[Legalising same-sex marriage] requires us to redefine the evolving notion of marriage. Because is the existence of two spouses who belong to a binary gender a necessary requirement for marriage?"
Earlier on Wednesday, the apex court said that the matter needs to be finished in a time-bound manner as other cases waiting to be heard.
Now the arguments from the petitioners will be closed on Monday. The SC bench has asked lawyers to discuss among themselves on dividing the time.