A petition was filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra before Delhi High Court, seeking registration of marriages of same sex couples under the Hindu Marriage Act as well as Foreign Marriage Act.
During the course of hearing, the petitioner has argued that the language used in the Hindu Marriage Act is Gender-Neutral and it doesn’t explicitly prohibit the marriages of same sex couples.
Today, while hearing the matter, a Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Justice Asha Menon has issued notice to the Union of India in a plea seeking registration of marriages of the same sex couples under the Hindu Marriage Act and has also directed to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks.
The Court also noted that a similar matter is already pending which seeks marriage equality for same-sex couples under the Special Marriage Act. Therefore, the Court has listed up both the matters together on 14.01.2021.