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India bar council: legal recognition of same-sex marriage better left for legislative determination – JURIST

The Bar Council of India (BCI) Sunday passed a resolution to urge the Supreme Court of India to leave the issue of same-sex marriage for legislative consideration. The resolution came after a joint meeting of the BCI and all State Bar Councils.The release predominantly depends on the point that any matter of such far-reaching consequences for socio-cultural and religious beliefs of the populace should be a product of the legislative process only. The members unanimously opined that, since the issue involves a “spectrum of stakeholders” from diverse spheres of life, it should necessarily involve several rounds of detailed consultation piloted by competent legislature.BCI Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra stated that the BCI unanimously believes that the idea of same-sex marriage is irreconcilable with Indian culture. In the same vein, the resolution emphasized that:Issues pertaining to social and religious connotations should typically be dealt by Courts through doctrine of deference. The legislature being truly reflective of the will of the people is best suited to deal with such sensitive issues. Every responsible and prudent citizen of the country is worried about the future of his/her children after coming to know about the pendency of this matter before the Hon’ble Supreme Court.Further, the BCI also asserted that “More than 99.9% of people of the country are opposed to the idea of same sex marriage in our country.” However, this claim has not been backed by substantive statistical data.A five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage. It is headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and includes Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha. On its first day, the bench decided to limit its enquiry and focus only on the Special Marriage Act of 1954.