Supreme Court rejects review of its same-sex marriage judgment

The October 2023 judgment had refused to legalise same-sex marriage

A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice B.R. Gavai, on Thursday (January 9, 2025) rejected petitions seeking a review of an October 2023 judgment which refused to legalise same-sex marriage.

“We have carefully gone through the judgments delivered by Justices S. Ravindra Bhat (former judge) speaking for himself and for Hima Kohli (former judge) as well as the concurring opinion expressed by one of us (Justice P.S. Narasimha), constituting the majority view. We do not find any error apparent on the face of the record. We further find the view expressed in both the judgments is in accordance with law and as such, no interference is warranted. Accordingly, the review petitions are dismissed,” the Review Bench held in a short order.

The other judges on the Bench are Justices Surya Kant, B.V. Nagarathna, and Dipankar Datta. The petitions were decided via circulation in the chambers of the judges.

In July 2024, the petitioners had pushed for a hearing in open court considering the public interest involved in the issue. The Review Bench’s order has rejected that plea too.

The review petitions had argued that the top court verdict compelled same-sex couples, who wish for the joys of a real family, to remain in the closet and lead dishonest lives.

The judgment, while acknowledging that same-sex partners suffer from the indignity of discrimination in their everyday lives, had denied them any judicial relief, choosing to leave the community at the mercy of government policy and legislative wisdom.

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The majority judgment in 2023 had said that it did not want to leave the constraints of judicial power to encroach into the legislative domain of the Parliament. It had said Parliament was the ideal forum to debate and pass laws, or not, on the question of conferring legal status to same-sex marriage.

The majority view had disagreed with the minority opinion of then Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul that the government must at least grant a ‘civil union’ status to same-sex partners. The majority had held that such a concept was not backed by statutory law.

Published - January 09, 2025 09:24 pm IST