Indian court refuses to legalise same-sex marriage
India's top court refused on Tuesday to legalise same-sex marriages but said the country had a duty to acknowledge LGBTQ relationships and to protect them from discrimination. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has opposed moves to legally codify same-sex partnerships in the five years since the Supreme Court struck down colonial-era laws banning gay sex. Lawyers for several same-sex couples urged the court earlier this year to grant their relationships full legal recognition, but the five-member bench ruled that extending marriage equality was a parliamentary decision. "It lies within the domain of parliament and state legislatures to determine the law on marriage," Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said in his verdict. The court's ruling held that the fundamental right to marriage for same-sex couples was not guaranteed by India's constitution under existing law. It did grant marriage rights to couples where one or both members were transgender, provided one participant in the union identified as a man and the other as a woman. Chandrachud added that India still had a duty to acknowledge same-sex relationships and protect those in them from discrimination. "Our ability to feel love and affection for one another makes us feel human," he said from the bench. "This court has recognised that equality demands that queer unions and queer persons are not discriminated against." The verdict was greeted with disappointment by a crowd gathered outside the court. "We are not satisfied with whatever the court has said", Siddhant Kumar, 27, told AFP. "This has been going on for years, we have been struggling for legal recognition," he added. "We have to remain strong and continue our fight." The petitioners had said validating same-sex marriage would help them access some of the legal benefits of matrimony, including adoption, insurance and inheritance.  But Modi's Hindu nationalist government has staunchly opposed same-sex marriage, and insisted that any change was up to parliament and not the courts. "Any interference... would cause a complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country and in accepted societal values", the government said in its submission. "Living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same sex individuals... is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children", it added. (AFP)