India’s LGBTQ community urges Supreme Court to recognise ‘fundamental’ same-sex marriage rights
- In a sign of shifting values, members of India’s LGBTQ community are petitioning for the Supreme Court to legally recognise same-sex marriages
- India struck down a colonial-era ban on homosexuality in 2018 but the socially conservative country of 1.4 billion has to be more accepting
Archee Roy, 34, a queer Dalit artist in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, has been in a committed same-sex relationship for over four years. However, she cannot list her partner officially as family in office and bank records even if they were to marry, as India does not legally recognise same-sex marriages.
“India provides a space for heterosexual couples to marry but that space and right is denied to us completely,” said Roy, who belongs to the so-called low caste Dalit community. “Queer people also deserve the right to marry, like any other citizen of India.”
This may soon change, after India’s Supreme Court on Monday referred 19 petitions to a five-judge constitution bench for consideration, with the final arguments scheduled for April 18.
This means that they are not entitled to rights to own and inherit property together or apply for joint bank loans. They also do not get benefits that heterosexual spouses are entitled to from their spouses’ workplace, such as pensions, bereavement leave as well as compassionate appointment – whereby dependents may be entitled to claim a deceased person’s position.
