At Delhi High Court a same-sex couple has reached seeking legal recognition of their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969. The solicitors are an Indian citizen who got married in Washington DC, United States in 2017. The two gay men confessed that they had approached the Indian consulate at New York to register their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 on March 5, 2020, but the consulate rejected the application for registration because of their sexual orientation.
The plea stated the Indian consulate would have enrolled the marriage of any similarly placed opposite-sex couple. On Thursday the inquiry was listed before a single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla, who inferred the matter to an appropriate division bench for next week. The petitioners submitted that the respondents' denial to register the marriage of the petitioners, who are a same-sex couple, come in violation of Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India.
Moreover, the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 in as much as it segregates against same-sex couples by denying legal recognition of their marriage is ultra vires Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution, and ought to be read down to extend to same-sex couples. The couple has stated that the Supreme Court has in various decisions held that the right to marry a person of their choice is inherent in Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The non-recognition of same-sex marriages is a wanton act of discrimination that attacks at the root of prestige and self-fulfillment of the LGBTQ community.
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