Delhi High Court Transfers Pleas Seeking Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriages To Supreme Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday transferred a bunch of pleas seeking recognition of same-sex marriages in the country to the Supreme Court.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad transferred the pleas after the Supreme Court, earlier this month, transferred to itself similar petitions. 

As the court was apprised about the order of the Apex Court, it ordered:

"This court is of the opinion that in light of the order of the Supreme Court, all the matters are transferred to the Supreme Court. Office is directed to transfer the record immediately."

Advocate Arundhati Katju appeared for the petitioners in the matter.

The bunch of pleas have been fixed for hearing before Supreme Court on March 13. 

One of the pleas transferred from the High Court has been filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra seeking registration of marriages of LGBTQIA couples under the Hindu Marriage Act. It is argued that the language used in the Hindu Marriage Act is gender-neutral, and it doesn't explicitly prohibit the marriages of same sex couples.

In another plea filed by Dr. Kavita Arora, a direction is sought to be issued to the Marriage Officer, South East Delhi, to solemnize her marriage with her partner under the Special Marriage Act.

Another plea moved by Joydeep Sengupta, an OCI card holder, and his partner Russell Blaine Stephens prays for a declaration from the Court that "a spouse of foreign origin of an Indian Citizen or OCI cardholder is entitled to apply for registration as an OCI under the Citizenship Act regardless of the gender, sex or sexual orientation of the applicant spouse."

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, is seized of a PIL filed by Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang. They have been a couple for almost 10 years and they recently had a commitment ceremony in December 2021, where their relationship was blessed by their parents, family and friends. They seek that their marriage be recognized under the Special Marriage Act.

The batch of PILs also include one filed by Parth Phiroze Mehrotra and Uday Raj Anand who have been in a relationship with each other for the last 17 years. They claim that they are presently raising two children together, but since they cannot legally solemnize their marriage, it has resulted in a situation where both of them cannot have a legal relationship of parent and child with both their children. 

Another same-sex couple – an Indian national and a Citizen of the United States of America (USA), who married and registered their marriage in the USA in 2014 and now seek to register their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 had also filed a PIL.