Jul 11, 2020
Same-Sex Marriage in India
will this work?
Marriage between same-sex partners is a fresh topic of debate in India.
Rumour has it that two wonderful lawyers have decided to get marriage between same-sex persons legalised in India. You may know them as two of the lawyers fighting for de-criminalisation of homosexuality by bringing down section-377 of IPC; Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju. Here’s a picture of them if you’ve been living under a rock.
Yes, they also came out as a couple after homosexuality got decriminalised in India.
[Fine! I’ll give you their twitter handles at the end so that you can identify them in future.]
Now they’re onto something, picking up “The Marriage Project” as they’re calling it. But… it’s India we live in… we still have other problems when it comes to marriage. I am no lawyer, and neither have I ever dreamed of being married, but just by the virtue of existence, that too in a place like Delhi, I think I might have heard some terms that boggle me.
For starters, I don’t know under which of the following will a same-sex marriage be legalised.
- Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872
- Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936
- Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937
- Special Marriage Act, 1954
- Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
- Anand Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2012
- Boudha (Buddhist) Marriage Act 2017
Would it have to be legalised under respective religions?
Won’t the religious factions oppose a same-sex marriage?
What about divorce & separation?
Don’t even get me started on the caste problem that’s leading to at least 20 heartbreaks in India right now as you read this [am sure the number is much more].
So far the Special Marriage Act, 1954 seems to cover all religions — Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Jew, and inter-religion marriage. It also encompasses NRI folks’ marriages. Hence, it might be fit to introduce the same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act. What I can think of though, instead of a controversial same-sex marriage law that may take years to implement (because trouble-making religious factions after all), is a legal CIVIL UNION between same-sex individuals; more of which is in my next blog-post here: https://link.medium.com/IWgEET1v27
As promised:
https://twitter.com/MenakaGuruswamy?s=20
https://twitter.com/arundhatikatju?s=20
Enjoy being an Indian! :D
