India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to legalise same-sex marriages, asserting that the responsibility to enact such a law lies with the country’s Parliament.
The decision followed the consideration of 20 petitions earlier this year, all advocating for the legalization of same-sex marriage in India, the world’s most populous nation.
Chief Justice Chandrachud mentioned that there were varying levels of agreement and disagreement among the justices regarding the extent to which they should proceed with the issue of same-sex marriages.
He emphasized that the court’s role is to interpret existing laws and give them effect, rather than creating new laws.
The chief justice said “This court can’t make law. It can only interpret it and give effect to it.”
Therefore, the decision to expand marriage laws to encompass same-sex unions rests with the Indian Parliament.
The case involved 21 separate petitions from members of the LGBTQ+ community who argued that the inability to marry violated their constitutional rights and relegated them to “second-class citizens.”
The government contested these petitions, arguing that marriage is a union exclusively meant for a man and a woman and that those seeking marriage equality were advancing an “urban elitist view for the purpose of social acceptance.”
