New Delhi: The Centre has filed a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court urging it to make all the state governments and Union Territories parties to the proceedings on the petitions seeking legal validation for same-sex marriages.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, requested a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that states be made parties to the proceedings.
In an affidavit, the Centre has said it issued a letter on April 18 to all the states inviting comments and views on the "seminal issue" raised in the pleas.
"It is submitted that Union of India, has issued a letter dated April 18, 2023, to all states inviting comments and views on the seminal issue raised in the present batch of petition," it said.
According to the central government, the Concurrent list in the Seventh Schedule to the Indian Constitution includes "marriage" which makes consultation with all the states necessary for the adjudication of the petitions.
Entry 5 of the Concurrent List includes Marriage and divorce; infants and minors; adoption; wills, intestacy and succession; joint family and partition; all matters in respect of which parties in judicial proceedings were immediately before the commencement of this Constitution subject to their personal law, as quoted by Live Law.
Centre says every component of Entry 5 above is intrinsically interrelated and any change in any one will necessarily have an inevitable cascading effect on another.
Centre also claims that any decision on the present issues without making States a party, without specifically obtaining their opinion on the present issue, would render the adjudication "incomplete and truncated”, reports Live Law.
The bench, also comprising Justices S.K. Kaul, S.R. Bhat, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha, commenced hearing for the second day on the batch of petitions seeking recognition of same-sex marriages.
The Centre has also urged the court to allow it to finish the consultative process with the states, obtain their views and concerns, compile the same and place it on record.
On the first day of the hearings held yesterday, the primary arguments raised before the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court pertained to marriage being a way to help assimilate queer individuals in society better and end the stigma against them, reports Live Law.
On November 25 last year, the apex court sought the Centre's response to separate pleas moved by two gay couples seeking enforcement of their right to marry and a direction to the authorities concerned to register their marriages under the Special Marriage Act.