South Africa tour of India 2019
SC declines to give same-sex marriage any legal legitimacy.
On Tuesday, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by India's Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud denied same-sex marriage any official recognition.
The Constitution Bench, which also included Justices S.K. Kaul, S.R. Bhat, Hima Kohli, and P.S. Narasimha, declared that there is no absolute right to marriage for LGBT couples.
It requested that a powerful committee led by the Cabinet Secretary be established by the Union government to determine the legal rights and social benefits of same-sex couples.
The Supreme Court ruled that judges could only interpret the law—not create it. It rejected the petitioners' argument that the terms "husband" and "wife" in the Special Marriage Act (SMA) might be rendered gender neutral by adding the word "spouse" in place of "man" and "woman."
A number of petitions challenging certain sections of the Hindu Marriage Act, Foreign Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act, and other marriage laws as unconstitutional on the grounds that they deny same-sex couples the right to marry, or challenging these provisions to be interpreted broadly to include same-sex marriage, were being heard by the Constitution Bench.
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