‘Is society ready to listen?’: Kapil Sibal ahead of SC hearing on same-sex marriage
A five-judge Supreme Court constitution bench is set to hear a batch of petitions seeking legal validation of same-sex marriages in the country on Tuesday.
Former Union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday questioned that while the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments for granting legal recognition to same-sex marriages in the country, “is the society ready to listen?”
“Same-sex marriage. Supreme ready to hear. Is society ready to listen ?Tough one !,” Sibal tweeted.
A five-judge Supreme Court constitution bench - consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices S K Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, P S Narasimha, and Hima Kohli - is set to hear a batch of petitions seeking legal validation of same-sex marriages in the country on Tuesday. This comes after at least 15 petitions on the matter were referred to a larger bench for an authoritative decision last month by a CJI-led bench - who called it a "very seminal issue”.
Also read: Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti moves SC, opposes same-sex marriage
There has been a major demand to legalise same-sex marriages in India to normalise homosexuality within the society - especially since after the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the IPC in 2018.
However, the Centre has been opposing the idea, terming it as merely reflecting “urban elitist views for the purpose of social acceptance".
On Sunday, the Centre submitted a fresh application to Supreme Court arguing that the petitioners cannot claim same-sex marriages as a fundamental right.
"A decision by the court in recognising the right of same-sex marriage would mean a virtual judicial rewriting of an entire branch of law. The court must refrain from passing such omnibus orders. Proper authority for the same is appropriate legislature...Given the fundamental social origin of these laws, any change in order to be legitimate would have to come from the bottom up and through legislation...a change cannot be compelled by judicial fiat and the best judge of the pace of change is the legislature itself,” the Centre's application said.
