NEW DELHI: A petition has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking direction for the registration of same-sex marriages either under religion-neutral law or under secular law. The intervention application was filed by Sewa Nyay Utthan Foundation through Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha who sought registration of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956.
According to the application, such marriages should either be registered under laws like Special Marriage Act or under all religious laws such as Muslim Marriage Law and Sikhs’ Anand Marriage Act. It must be made religion-neutral.
The bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Friday said that it will hear the Intervention Application (IA) along with the pending batch of petitions seeking recognition of same-sex marriages under the special Hindu and foreign marriage laws.
The court will hear the matter on February 3 2022, with the other pending matters. The petitioner organisation have filed objections to registration of such marriages under Hindu Marriage Act as it is directly derived from Hindu dharmic texts such as Ved and Upanishads, where a marriage is defined as
allowed between biological male and biological female person only.