Quick Highlights
The Delhi Council for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has petitioned the Supreme Court for same-sex marriage legalization and adoption and succession rights. On April 3, the child rights organization supported the batch of appeals made by homosexual couples seeking same-sex marriage legalization in an intervention application.
Same-Sex Adoption: A Growing Trend Across the Globe
The Commission noted that over 50 nations allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The background to, and the status quo of homosexual relationships in India, is as follows: After years of advocacy, the Supreme Court legalized adult consensual homosexual sex on September 6, 2018.
The government contested the petitions in a brief to the supreme court, arguing that the petitioners cannot claim a basic right to Same-Sex Marriage under Indian law. It further argued that while the Centre recognizes only heterosexual couples, other marriages, unions, and personal connections between people in a culture are not illegal.
It stated Western rulings without any basis in Indian constitutional law jurisprudence cannot be imported in this context and that recognizing human interactions is a legislative role and cannot be adjudicated by judges.
DCPCR Petitions for Normalizing Same-Sex Weddings
On March 13, the supreme court submitted same-sex marriage petitions to a five-judge Constitution bench for a decision, calling it a very crucial matter. Chief Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud’s bench noted constitutional rights and special legislative enactments, such as the Special Marriage Act, interact.
The DCPCR requested assistance through counsel Abhishek Manchanda to further its case. The DCPCR’s appeal noted that teenage homosexuals without legal rights might develop psychological complexes, low self-esteem, and other mental health difficulties. Homosexuals’ acceptance, integration, and legitimacy will remain rocky without equal rights. This again affects teens.
The Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights has petitioned the Supreme Court to encourage the Centre and state governments to normalize same-sex weddings. The Delhi Council For Protection of Child Rights requested assistance in the batch of cases currently before the top court, citing various studies showing same-sex couples can be good parents.
The application argued that same-sex couples’ adoption and succession rights can be accommodated within the current legal system. Non-recognition of same-sex marriages may affect gay offspring.
Legal Parenthood in Same-Sex Relationships
The individual is the sole legal parent and guardian of their kid. While the kid may be in shared care and maintenance of a homosexual couple performing equal tasks, only one would have de jure authority and rights. This might have psychological and emotional effects on the affected de facto guardian and the kid, who may have fewer choices if his guardians split.
Homosexual marriages would lose legal validity, denying the kid dual parenthood and guardianship. Hence, the kid would lose a legal family and intestate succession.
Recognizing non-binary gender identities and including them in marriage and family laws will not destroy gender-specific legislation. The DCPCR stressed that legalizing same-sex marriages does not affect adoption or succession rights.
Same-Sex Marriage: Adoption and Surrogacy Rights
The legalization of same-sex marriage does not affect adoption, succession, or children’s rights under the current legal system.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2014 NALSA ruling, which recognized transgender people as a third gender, the state cannot discriminate against homosexuals. If this responsibility can be enforced for transgender/intersex people, the argument of complexity and obstacles in changing gender-specific legislation to allow same-sex marriages and the rights of adoption and succession that follow does not stand.
In light of DCPCR’s petition, it is important to note that the main error in the Surrogacy Act is its exclusion of members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The Act restricts surrogacy to heterosexual couples and unmarried women. Article 14 of the Constitution protects the right to equality of LGBTQIA+ individuals, and this is a grievous violation of that right.
Social and legal change should drive legislation. We cannot freeze in time or let present legislation’s terminology impede basic rights. Law is a route to human and basic rights.
