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On Friday, the Delhi High Court has given the Central government one last opportunity to file its reply on petitions seeking to recognize same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage act 1954, Hindu Marriage act, 1956, and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969. The Central government has sought time of three weeks to file its reply. Time was also granted to the Delhi government to file its counter-affidavit before a division bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.
The Petition for recognition in the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 has been filed by Vaibhav Jain and his partner Parag Vijay Mehta and the petition in Special marriage act has been filed by Dr. Kavita Arora and Ankita Khanna (Dr. Kavita Arora & Anr vs UOI, Vaibhav Jain & Anr vs UOI). The contention is that the non-recognition of same-sex marriages under the two acts is discriminatory and it denies dignity to LGBTQ couples.
The petition for the Hindu marriage act has been filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Gopi Shankar M, Giti Thadani, and G Oorvasi (Abhijit Iyer Mitra & Ors vs UOI). It is contended that the Hindu Marriage act talks about marriage between any two Hindus and thus nonrecognition of same-sex marriage is discriminatory. Constitutional grounds have also been raised stating that the Right to marry is a part of Article 21.
The High Court has suggested that counsel to the petitioners only make written submissions for the filing of the rejoinder to the governments' stand. However, Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for the petitions regarding the Foreign Marriage Act and Special Marriage act insisted on oral submissions.
The matter would be heard on 25th February.
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