The impassioned arguments for the case, which were heard in a marathon of hearings in April and May, had been followed closely across the country as they were livestreamed from the court. People watch the hearings and wait for the supreme court verdict in Mumbai. In India, LGBTQ+ couples are denied rights such as joint bank accounts, being the legal next of kin, and recognition for inheritance, while marriage remains a fundamental pillar of society. The petitioners, which included dozens of LGBTQ+ couples and activists who came together in a collective lawsuit, had been fighting to amend India’s special marriage act – which allows civil unions between couples of different religions – to be expanded to include same-sex couples. It had argued that the matter should be decided in parliament, not the courts. The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government had opposed the case, calling the arguments for equality “urban elitist views” and stating that marriages were not “comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children”. Khanna added: “Having said that, the queer community will continue to move forward in solidarity and with resilience, as we always have.” “But what we got today was a deeply divided judgment that was unclear about what the law could offer as relief to the challenges of our unequal and diverse queer lives.” “The hearings and the months thereafter had given us a lot of hope: that we were in the highest court of the country, and that our struggles were being heard and deliberated upon deeply,” she said. But while acceptance of homosexuality is growing, Indian society still remains largely conservative and there was resistance to opening up marriage to same-sex couples, who still face rampant discrimination and harassment in society.Īnkita Khanna, who was one of the petitioners in the case, said she was “deeply disappointed”. In 2018 the supreme court scrapped a colonial-era law banning homosexuality in India.
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