Center opposes giving legal recognition to gay marriage, filed affidavit in Supreme Court

The Center has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the legal recognition of gay marriage. The Center told the top court that same-sex relationships and heterosexual relationships are distinctly different categories, which cannot be treated as the same.

The existing law is 'limited to the recognition of the legal relationship of marriage between a man and a woman, who were represented as husband and wife.' In recent months, four same-sex couples have asked the court to recognize same-sex marriages, setting off a legal clash with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The Supreme Court will hear the matter on Monday. The Central Government told the Supreme Court that same-sex relationships and heterosexual relationships are clearly different categories, which cannot be treated as the same in any case. The Central Government told the Supreme Court that same-sex cohabitation may have been decriminalised. Yet it cannot be compared with the concept of the Indian family unit of husband, wife and children.

The central government said that the decriminalization of IPC section 377 cannot give rise to a claim for recognition of same-sex marriages. The Center said that statutory recognition of marriage limited to heterosexual in nature is a norm throughout history and is a fundamental aspect for both the existence and continuity of the state. The counter-affidavit of the Central Government states that therefore keeping in view its social value, it is an essential interest of the State to boycott other forms of marriage and to recognize only heterosexual marriage.