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Same-sex marriage case | Marriage holy union between man and woman, Centre tells Supreme Court

The Centre in the Supreme Court frowned upon same-sex marriage while invoking the “accepted view” that a marriage between a biological man and woman is a “holy union, a sacrament and a sanskar” in India.

“The institution of marriage has a sanctity attached to it and in major parts of the country, it is regarded as a sacrament, a holy union, and a sanskar. 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 said in a 56-page affidavit filed on March 12. The affidavit came in response to the Court’s decision to examine petitions to allow solemnisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

Any “deviation” from this “statutorily, religiously and socially” accepted norm in “human relationship” can only happen through the legislature and not the Supreme Court, the government said.

The government argued that the Court had only decriminalised sexual intercourse between same-sex persons in its 2018 judgement in Navtej Singh Johar, and not legitimised this “conduct”. It said a same-sex marriage cannot be compared to a man and women living as a family with children born out of the union.

Registration of marriage of same-sex persons would also result in violation of existing personal as well as codified law provisions. It said statutory recognition of hetrosexual marriage was the norm throughout history and is “foundational to both the existence and continuance of the state”.

The government said there was a “compelling interest” for the society and the state to limit recognition to heterosexual marriages only.