Kochi, Oct 17 (PTI) Kerala Higher Education and Social Justice Minister R Bindu on Tuesday termed the observations of CJI D Y Chandrachud on same-sex marriages as important, and said the current views on inheritance and marriages need to be reformed with the changing times.
Bindu, speaking to reporters here, said that what CJI Chandrachud said about same-sex marriages has been accepted by modern society and also scientifically acknowledged.
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She said that people with same-sex affinity were always there among all communities and therefore, no one among the modern scientific community would be ready to term such persons as an aberration or against the natural order.
The minister said the presence and visibility of transgenders and those with same-sex affinity was on the increase and therefore, it was time to give them social acceptance.
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The apex court on Tuesday, while refusing to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages, said the Parliament has to decide whether there was need for a change in the regime of the Special Marriage Act.
The minister expressed hope that the Central government would take an approach keeping in mind human dignity while making any law on the subject.
“In the current scenario where the LGBTQIA++ community’s human needs and rights are being considered, our views on inheritance and marriages also need to be reformed with the changing times,” she said.
The minister said what the CJI observed about the institution of marriage — that it was not a “static and unchanging institution” — was very important.
“No one should be adamant that the institution of marriage should always continue in the same way. It can change as our views and opinions change,” she said.
The apex court, while passing four separate verdicts, was unanimous in holding that there is “no unqualified right” to marriage, and same-sex couples can’t claim it as a fundamental right under the Constitution.
In his separate judgement on the issue of same-sex marriages, CJI Chandrachud said that homosexuality or queerness was not an urban concept or restricted to the upper class and to imagine so would be like erasing them.
Justice Chandrachud said that queerness can be regardless of one’s caste or class.
On the institution of marriage, the CJI said that it would be incorrect to term it as “static and unchanging”.
The CJI said the ability to choose a life partner goes to the roots of the right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The right to enter into a union includes the right to choose a partner and its recognition, the CJI said, adding that failure to recognise such an association would be discriminatory.
The CJI also said adoption regulations are held to be void as they are discriminatory towards queer people and denied them the right to adopt as a couple.
Differing with the CJI’s opinion, Justice Bhat held that just because queer couples are not allowed to adopt a child does not mean that the regulations are void.
The LGBTQIA++ persons, who had won a major legal battle in 2018 in the Supreme Court which decriminalised consensual gay sex, had moved the apex court seeking validation of same-sex marriage and consequential reliefs such as rights to adoption, enrolment as parents in schools, opening of bank accounts and availing succession and insurance benefits.
However, the top court left all these for Parliament to decide.
LGBTQIA++ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit, asexual and ally persons.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
