Same-sex marriage hearing Updates: No data to show it is 'elitist concept' - CJI

As the Supreme Court continues to hear the pleas seeking validity of same-sex marriage in India, ‘marriage equality’ trended on Twitter Wednesday. The verdict on the case will have profound ramification for the country's mostly conservative population as well as social and cultural norms.

Cubans voted to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption as well as surrogate pregnancies in September last year, making Cuba the latest and the 34th nation to adopt marriage equality.

The LGBTQIA+ community includes the people who who have a sexual orientation or gender identity that is different from the traditional heterosexual and cisgender norms. The umbrella term is an initialism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual.

Under the article 142 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the power to pass any order necessary for doing complete justice.

On second day of hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi stressed the need to 'push society to acknowledge us as equals in all respects because the Constitution says so'.

Singhvi: “LGBT+ people need protection from both theState as well as non-state actos…marriage equality will remove the next brick of exclusion, reducing the stigma around the community.”

Singhvi: “Navtej Johar was momentous by decriminalization but it still remains in a real sense- little done, vast undone.” Read about the Navtej Johar v. the Union of India verdict.

Advocate Singhvi: “It's just not the State which threatens the core values of equality, liberty, fraternity but also non-state actors which are invasive of these core constitutional values.”

Senior advocate AM Singhvi said the heart of this case, beyond anything, was first, the right to manifest love, the right to love without being discriminated based on identities.

Lawyer Rohatgi wrapped up his arguments in the hearing of same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court. Senior advocate AM Singhvi begins his submissions in the case.

Taiwan became the first Asian nation to legalise same-sex marriage. The legislation here was enacted through court mandate, making it among the 34 nations where marriage equality exists.

The senior lawyer was the first AG for the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government between 2014 and 2017.

The same-sex marriage legality issue requires an assessment of state rules, and customs of different sections of society, the Centre said. Read more here.

"Nobody can deny a full and equal citizenship- it can't be sans marriage, sans family, sans the respect of a marriage, and we'll forever be treated as those people….I am not invoking a new basis. The basis already exists. It's already the law of the land. But it stopped at decriminalization because that was the issue then,” Rohatgi in court.

“The LGBT+ community as equal citizens under the constitution, are entiled to the same benefits. Hence, the benefits flowing from marriages should also be extended to the same-sex couples,” said Rohatgi in SC.

"Sometimes the law takes the lead, sometimes the society takes the lead. The power, jurisdiction, obligation, and responsibility of this court is only cast on this court," Rohatgi said, adding the court, being the highest institution cannot be affected by popular public morality.

"When the Hindu Code came, parliament wasn't ready. The Hindu Code wasn't just Hindu Marriage Act, it had adoption, succession - so many things. It wasn't accepted. Dr Ambedkar had to resign," Rohatgi in SC on seeking marriage equality. He said the LGBT+ community had not representation in the Parliament but here we can voice our views.

Rohatgi cited a recent order of the Nepalese Supreme Court recognising a same-sex marriage & asking the Nepal’s Ministry of Law and Justice to prepare an equal marriage law or amend existing laws. "One can't even accuse them of having elitist concept like the Union tells us."

"What we were in Mughal era or British period, those laws or morals need to be imposed today. US also has a conservative population…they went on abortion," Rohatgi on comparison of values between India-US.

Reading out a reference, Rohatgi contended that union of two people in the institution of marriage embodies values of love, fidelity….if the sacred union is so good for society, it has to be good for us too'.

US versus Windsor is a landmark US case concerning same-sex marriage. It challenged the constitutionality of the “Defense of Marriage Act” – which defined marriage for all federal purposes as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. The court ruled the federal government cannot discriminate against married lesbian and gay couples for the purposes of determining federal benefits and protections.

"We may be a miniscule minority but having the same rights, we're entitled to the same declaration," Rohatgi in SC.

“I'm not saying that all struggles will end. But I'm saying that if we succeed we should get an explicit declaration,” Rohatgi said maintaining that all consequences flowing from the registration of a marriage of a heterosexual couple must also flow to same-sex marriage.

Mukul Rohatgi handed out a note to the SC bench saying he doesn't only want a declaration but also a directive that all consequences flowing from the registration of a marriage of a heterosexual couple must also flow to same-sex marriage.

“I walk in to a public space with my partner knowing that the law and the state recognises this union as a marriage, no one will raise stigma against me,” Rohatgi on seeking marriage quality.