Straight Line News Network
New Delhi: In an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court, Centre has opposed a batch of petitions seeking recognition and registration of same-sex marriages in India. Centre said that living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same-sex individuals, is not comparable with the “Indian family unit concept” of a husband, wife and children.
“In our country, despite statutory recognition of the relationship of marriage between a biological man and a biological woman, marriage necessarily depends upon age-old customs, rituals, practices, cultural ethos and societal values,” the Centre told the court.
The government also said that the marriage in India is not just a matter between two individuals but “a solemn institution” between “a biological man and a biological woman”.
“By and large the institution of marriage has a sanctity attached to it and in major parts of the country, it is regarded as a sacrament,” the Centre told the court in response to the petitions seeking recognition and registration of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Special Marriage Act and the Foreign Marriage Act.
The Centre also said despite that decriminalisation of Section 377 under Indian Penal Code by the Supreme Court, the petitioners cannot claim a fundamental right for same-sex marriage under the laws of the country and that Article 21 is subject to the procedure established by law and “the same cannot be expanded to extend to include the fundamental right for a same sex marriage to be recognised under the laws of the country which in fact mandate the contrary.”
