Supreme Court transfers homosexual cases across the country to itself, notice to Center

The leading petition by Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang, two gay men living in Hyderabad, states that the right to marry the person of their choice should be extended to LGBTQ+ citizens as well.

The Supreme Court has transferred the same-sex marriage cases pending in all the High Courts of the country to itself. The petition filed regarding this matter has been heard in the apex court on Friday and it has issued a notice to the Central Government. The Supreme Court has listed the matter for further hearing on March 13.

The leading petition by Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang, two gay men living in Hyderabad, states that the right to marry the person of their choice should be extended to LGBTQ+ citizens as well. The pair of Supriyo and Abhay have been together for almost 10 years. CJI DY Chandrachud said in the order that there are several batches of petitions related to this matter pending before High Courts including Delhi, Kerala and Gujarat, we are of the view that they should be transferred and decided by this court. We direct that all the writ petitions shall be transferred to this court.

The Supreme Court said that we will list the matter for directions by the end of February 2023. A common set of written submissions will be filed by the petitioners and one set will be filed by the respondent. Advocate Arundhati Katju will be the nodal counsel for the petitioners, Advocate Kanu Aggarwal will be for the Centre. On December 14 last year, the Supreme Court had sought answers from the Center on two petitions. In the petitions, there was a demand to transfer the petitions pending in the Delhi High Court to the Supreme Court so that instructions could be given to recognize same-sex marriages.

The Supreme Court held that having sex between homosexuals is not a crime

On 25 November 2022, the Supreme Court heard petitions by two same-sex couples seeking directions to the authorities to enforce their right to marry and register the marriage under the Special Marriage Act. At that time the court had sought an answer from the central government. On 6 September 2018, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court struck down a part of the British-era law. The court had said that it is not a crime to have consensual sex between adult homosexuals or heterosexuals in a private place.