A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, today, refused to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages. The bench, led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S. Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha, pronounced the verdict on a series of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex and queer marriages.
Saying that the court can't make law but only interpret it, the bench directed the Parliament to decide on granting legal status to same-sex marriages. Incidentally, the Union government has been vehemently opposing the legal validation.
Interestingly, more than 30 jurisdictions worldwide have already implemented marriage equality rights. Countries mostly in Europe and Americas legally allow gays and lesbians to marry. However, it is mostly the western Europe that is in favour of same-sex marriages. Slovenia is the only former communist state from eastern Europe to legalise same-sex marriage – it was done last year.
In 2018, the European Court of Justice issued a ruling stipulating that all EU member states must acknowledge same-sex marriages for immigration purposes, irrespective of the legal status of same-sex marriage within their respective territories. Subsequently, the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria confirmed its commitment to recognising same-sex marriages specifically for immigration-related matters.
The world's first legally recognised same-sex marriage occurred in the Netherlands in 2001. Following this, Belgium, in 2003, became the second country globally to legalise same-sex marriage. Argentina set a precedent in Latin America by allowing gays and lesbians to marry, and Taiwan became the first in Asia to do the same.
South Africa stands as the sole African nation where same-sex marriage is legal, despite several other countries there implementing laws that criminalise homosexuality in recent years. Both South Africa and Taiwan passed legislation permitting same-sex marriage after their respective courts mandated their legislatures to take such action. Notably, in Taiwan, same-sex marriage is exclusively available to Taiwanese citizens or foreign citizens from countries that recognise same-sex marriage and wish to marry a Taiwanese citizen.
To date, 23 countries globally have enacted national legislation to legalise same-sex marriage. Notably, Australia, Ireland, and Switzerland embraced same-sex marriage through legislative measures after conducting nationwide referendums.
Meanwhile, in 10 other countries, the legalisation of same-sex marriage at the national level was the result of court rulings.