Gay couple moves Supreme Court for legal recognition of marriage registered in USA

A same-sex couple has approached the Supreme Court seeking legal recognition of their US-registered marriage, under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969..The petitioners have sought a declaration to the effect that persons belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community have the same right to marriage as their heterosexual counterparts.Denial of the same is violative of the rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (equality), 19 (freedom), and 21(life and liberty) of the Constitution of India, the plea stated..According to the facts stated in the plea, one of the petitioners is Indian who got married to an American national in 2010 and registered their marriage in the United States of America.However, when the couple sought to register their marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, the same was refused by the registrar.Subsequently, the couple approached the Indian Embassy in Washington DC to register their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act. After waiting for months, the request was denied, and the petitioners claim that they were ill-treated by the authorities..The petitioners have submitted that the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 ought to be read liberally to apply to marriages between members of the LGBTQIA+ community, as they do to their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts."The Indian consulate would have registered the marriage of a heterosexual couple, but did not do the same for the Petitioners. In so doing, there was a violation of the Petitioners’ rights under Articles, 14, 15, 19 and 21 which the Supreme Court in Navtej Shingh Johar v. Union of India (supra) had held are guaranteed to LGBT and non-LGBT Indians with equal force," the plea contended..The plea goes on to contend that the concept of “marriage” has evolved over time and has become more inclusive instead of merely being a union only between heterosexual persons. Further,"Same-sex marriage will not harm traditional families. Allowing same-sex marriage in no way interferes with procreation or child-rearing within opposite-sex marriage, but it does harm same-sex couples and their children by denying them legal benefits, financial security, and making child-rearing more difficult.".Moreover, it is contended that denying the petitioners the right to marry under the Hindu Marriage Act is violative of Section 5 of the Act."...the Petitioners being followers of the Hindu faith are being denied the right to marry, which is violative of the statutory mandate of the HMA insofar that Section 5 of the Act clearly states that the marriage can be performed between “any two Hindus” under the Act. Nowhere does the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956 mandate that the only valid marriage is the one that takes place between two heterosexual persons, inasmuch as the phrase being used in Section 5 is “any two Hindus.”.The petition has been filed through advocate Nupur Kumar and drawn by advocates Hamza Lakdawala and Rohin Bhatt.