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NEW DELHI — The Indian authorities opposes recognizing same-sex marriages, it mentioned in a submitting to the Supreme Courtroom on Sunday, urging the court docket to reject challenges to the present authorized framework lodged by LGBT {couples}.

The Ministry of Regulation believes that whereas there could also be varied types of relationships in society, the authorized recognition of marriage is for heterosexual relationships and the state has a official curiosity in sustaining this, based on the submitting seen by Reuters, which has not been made public.

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“Residing collectively as companions and having sexual relationship by identical intercourse people … just isn’t comparable with the Indian household unit idea of a husband, a spouse and kids,” the ministry argued.

The court docket can’t be requested “to alter the complete legislative coverage of the nation deeply embedded in spiritual and societal norms,” it mentioned.

In a historic verdict in 2018, India’s high court docket decriminalized homosexuality by scrapping a colonial-era ban on homosexual intercourse. The present case is being seen as an extra necessary improvement on LGBT rights within the nation.

At the least 15 pleas, some by homosexual {couples}, have been filed in latest months asking the court docket to acknowledge same-sex marriages, setting the stage for this authorized face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities.

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CASE MARKS MILESTONE

Asia largely lags the West in accepting same-sex marriage.

Taiwan was the primary within the area to acknowledge such unions, whereas same-sex acts are unlawful in some international locations, equivalent to Malaysia. Singapore final yr ended a ban on homosexual intercourse however took steps to bar same-sex marriages.

Japan is the one nation among the many Group of Seven nations that doesn’t legally acknowledge same-sex unions, though the general public broadly favors recognition.

In India, the problem of same-sex marriage is delicate: talking overtly about homosexuality is taboo for a lot of within the socially conservative nation of 1.4 billion folks.

The problem has stoked feelings within the media and in parliament, the place a member of Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist social gathering in December requested the federal government to strongly oppose the petitions filed within the high court docket.

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LGBT activists say that whereas the 2018 ruling affirmed their constitutional rights, it’s unjust that they nonetheless lack authorized backing for his or her unions, a fundamental proper loved by heterosexual married {couples}.

“We are able to’t achieve this many issues within the means of dwelling collectively and constructing a life collectively,” one of many litigants within the present case, businessman Uday Raj Anand, advised Reuters in December.

In Sunday’s submitting, the federal government argued the 2018 ruling can not imply recognizing a elementary authorized proper to same-sex marriage below the legal guidelines of the nation.

The intent behind the present authorized system on marriage “was restricted to the popularity of a authorized relationship of marriage between a person and a lady, represented as a husband and spouse.”

The federal government has argued that any change to the authorized construction needs to be the area of the elected parliament, not the court docket.

The instances are set to be heard within the Supreme Courtroom on Monday. (Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; Modifying by Aditya Kalra and William Mallard)