Now Reading: Delhi HC questions Centre on rights for same-sex live-in couples
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Delhi HC questions Centre on rights for same-sex live-in couples
The Delhi High Court has asked the central government to explain why the law recognises live-in relationships between a man and a woman but not between two men. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma…
The Delhi High Court has asked the central government to explain why the law recognises live-in relationships between a man and a woman but not between two men. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma made the observation on 20 August while hearing a petition by Arshiya Takkar, who has been in a same-sex relationship with advocate Chand Chopra since 2015. The couple held a commitment ceremony in New Zealand in 2023, but Indian law does not grant them rights to act as each other's medical representatives.
A week earlier, Justice Saurabh Banerjee of the same court ruled that a live-in relationship between consenting adults is 'akin to marriage' while granting police protection to a heterosexual couple. Lawyers argue that the two observations, read together, create a legal pathway for same-sex live-in recognition. The Supreme Court's 2023 marriage equality verdict had directed the government to set up a High-Powered Committee to examine welfare benefits for queer couples. That committee has met only twice in 2024. The Centre has been given until July 2025 to file its response.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Delhi High Court's observations revive the gap left by the Supreme Court's October 2023 judgment in Supriyo v. Union of India. That verdict denied same-sex couples the right to marry but directed the government to form a High-Powered Committee (HPC) to examine welfare benefits for queer couples. The HPC met only twice in 2024, and the Union government has taken no administrative step since. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand's Uniform Civil Code now requires all live-in couples, but only opposite-sex ones, to register, punishable by imprisonment. Over 200 cases of queer couples seeking medical or inheritance rights are pending in various high courts. Read the Centre's next affidavit deadline, July 2025, to gauge whether the HPC will move at all.
Source: theprint.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
