Panel to address woes of gay couples, Supreme Court told

New Delhi, May 3

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that a panel headed by the Cabinet Secretary would be set up to explore administrative steps to address the “genuine humane concerns” of same-sex couples without going into the issue of legalising their marriage.

Wrong to ignore established norms

The right to choose a ‘partner’ does not necessarily imply the right to ‘marry’ such person over and above the procedure established by law. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General

On the seventh day of the hearing on petitions seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriage, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that the government was positive about the suggestion for exploring administrative steps in this regard.

This would need coordination between several ministries and the petitioners could give their suggestions on the administrative steps to be taken in this regard, Mehta told the Bench which also included Justice SK Kaul, Justice SR Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha.

Earlier, the Bench had asked the Centre if social welfare benefits could be granted to same-sex couples without going into the issue of legalising their marriage. It observed that the Centre’s acceptance of the right to cohabitation of same-sex partners as a fundamental right cast a “corresponding duty” on it to recognise its social consequences.

The Centre, however, urged the top court to dismiss the petitions seeking legal validation for same-sex marriage.

In his written submissions, Mehta said there could not be a presumption that the state was obliged to recognise all human relationships, rather the presumption had to be that state had no business to recognise any personal relationships unless it had a legitimate state interest in regulating the same.