English Article

Law and custom: On the Supreme Court’s verdict on same-sex marriage

The Supreme Court of India’s refusal to accord legal recognition to marriages between persons of the same sex is a huge legal setback to the queer community in the country. Given the progress in law in recent years and the deepening of the meaning of individual rights, there was widespread expectation that the five-judge Constitution Bench would give the Special Marriage Act (SMA), a law that allows any two people to marry, a gender-neutral interpretation to include people belonging to the same sex.