NEW DELHI, March 12 (Reuters) – The Indian authorities opposes recognising same-sex marriages, it mentioned in a submitting to the Supreme Court on Sunday, urging the court docket to reject challenges to the present authorized framework lodged by LGBT {couples}.

The Ministry of Law believes that whereas there could also be varied types of relationships in society, the authorized recognition of marriage is for heterosexual relationships and the state has a authentic curiosity in sustaining this, in line with the submitting seen by Reuters, which has not been made public.

“Living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same sex individuals … is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children,” the ministry argued.

The court docket can’t be requested “to change the entire legislative policy of the country deeply embedded in religious and societal norms”, it mentioned.

“As petitioners we have received wide support from people from all walks of life and it does not seem to me that most Indians feel injured by the thought of some loving families getting legal rights,” one of many litigants within the present case, businessman Uday Raj Anand, advised Reuters after the federal government filed the reply in court docket.

In an historic verdict in 2018, India’s high court docket decriminalised homosexuality by scrapping a colonial-era ban on homosexual intercourse. The present case is being seen as an additional essential growth on LGBT rights within the nation.

At least 15 pleas, some by homosexual {couples}, have been filed in latest months asking the court docket to recognise same-sex marriages, setting the stage for this authorized face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities.

“Sad that their concept of ‘Indian’ is so non-inclusive and static that it does not want to evolve according to wider notions of human rights,” filmmaker and equal rights activist Onir wrote on Twitter.

CASE MARKS MILESTONE

Asia largely lags the West in accepting same-sex marriage.

Taiwan was the primary within the area to recognise such unions, whereas same-sex acts are illegal in some nations, equivalent to Malaysia. Singapore final 12 months ended a ban on homosexual intercourse however took steps to bar same-sex marriages.

Japan is the one nation among the many Group of Seven nations that doesn’t legally recognise same-sex unions, though the general public broadly favours recognition.

In India, the problem of same-sex marriage is delicate: talking overtly about homosexuality is taboo for a lot of within the socially conservative nation of 1.4 billion individuals.

The challenge has stoked feelings within the media and in parliament, the place a member of Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist occasion in December requested the federal government to strongly oppose the petitions filed within the high court docket.

LGBT activists say that whereas the 2018 ruling affirmed their constitutional rights, it’s unjust that they nonetheless lack authorized backing for his or her unions, a primary proper loved by heterosexual married {couples}.

In Sunday’s submitting, the federal government argued the 2018 ruling can’t imply recognising a basic authorized proper to same-sex marriage underneath the legal guidelines of the nation.

The intent behind the present authorized system on marriage “was limited to the recognition of a legal relationship of marriage between a man and a woman, represented as a husband and wife.”

The authorities has argued that any change to the authorized construction needs to be the area of the elected parliament, not the court docket.

The circumstances are set to be heard within the Supreme Court on Monday.

Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by Aditya Kalra, William Mallard and Sharon Singleton

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