Introduction
The Supreme Court had decriminalized homosexuality. Now having a homosexual relationship is not a crime.
However, this is a battle half won, as there have not yet been any civil rights that gay couples can enjoy. A person in homosexual relationship can also go for the court marriage if both of them fulfill the requirements required in court marriage procedure
Now when people ask – is gay marriage legal in India, the answer to that may remain negative. However, after the recent Supreme Court’s judgment, people are still confused and asking – “Is gay marriage legal in India now?” To clarify, homosexuality has been decriminalized but gay marriage has still not been approved by the apex court of India.
According to Chief Justice Misra, “We have to bid adieu to prejudices and empower all citizens.” The Judges also said, “Any discrimination on the basis of sexuality amounts to a violation of fundamental rights”. Adding to that, “Consensual carnal intercourse among adults, be it homosexual or heterosexual, in private space, does not in any way harm the public decency or morality.”
The LGBT community in India as of now still faces certain social and legal difficulties. However, in the past decade, the same sex community has been able to gain much more tolerance in India especially when it comes to large cities.
However, there have been protests by people of India against the criminalization of same sex marriage and demands for legalizing gay marriage in India. Due to this outrage, the main change towards the gay community came after the Supreme Court made alterations on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code with regards to homosexuality.
However, still the homosexual marriages are not legally recognizable in India. It implies that even if the homosexual couples tie the knot, they are not given the civil rights such as
- Right to get the marriage registered
- Right to file for divorce
- Right to approach Courts in case of incidents of violence by spouse during marriage.
- Right to claim maintenance
- Right to live with dignity
- Child Adoption Rights
Moreover, the decriminalization of Section 377 IPC was done to provide “life” as defined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India but without above civil liberties , such an union can not be placed on the same footing as the union between heterosexual people. The discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is also violative of Article 15 of Constitution.
Moreover, there is now depiction of such marriages in movies, web series and also real life couples in Kerala and Haryana are following the practice to break the shackles of society.
Moreover, under the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to protect the run away couples by judiciary, a court in Haryana in 2011 recognized a homosexual marriage between two women. When Haryana a state that is considered to be orthodox in mindset can do such a thing then it is time for Supreme Court and Parliament to step up and recognize the same sex marriages in India.
But unfortunately some politicians pass remarks about not tolerating such marriages as decriminalizing the consensual homosexual intercourse in private space was a very big thing to digest for them.
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