India's supreme court refuses to legalise same-sex marriage in landmark ruling

India's top court has refused to legalise same-sex marriages, with the chief justice saying it is up to the parliament to create such a law.

Supporters of same-sex marriage gathered to listen to a live streaming of the verdict at the Humsafar Trust office in Mumbai, India. Source: EPA / Divyakant Solanki

Key points

• India's top court has refused to legalise same-sex marriages.
• The court ruling comes after a colonial-era ban on gay sex was scrapped in 2018.
• LGBTIQ+ rights in India have expanded in recent years.

India's top court has refused to legalise same-sex marriages as the nation's chief justice says such a law is the domain of parliament.

A five-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud, heard arguments in the case between April and May this year and pronounced its verdict on Tuesday.

Chandrachud said there was a degree of "agreement and disagreement on how far we have to go" on same-sex marriages as he began reading his order.

Two of the other four judges agreed with Chandrachud on the court not legalising same-sex marriages, making it a majority.

Two other judges are yet to speak.

The court ruling comes five years after a historic 2018 judgement when the Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex.

Only Taiwan and Nepal allow same-sex unions in Asia, where largely conservative values still dominate politics and society.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had opposed the petitions, calling them "urban elitist views" and stating that parliament is the right platform to debate and legislate on the matter.

It had also said that such marriages are not "comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has opposed the appeals on the grounds that same-sex marriages are not "compatible with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife, and children". Source: AAP, AP / Rafiq Maqbool

At least 15 appeals have been filed with the court in recent months stating that without legal recognition, many same-sex couples could not exercise rights such as those linked to medical consent, pensions, adoption or even club memberships.

Activists have estimated India is home to an LGBTIQ+ community of approximately 135 million people.

Gay marriage is legal in 34 countries around the world, with the Netherlands being the first to legalise it, in 2001.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Australia in 2017 following a national plebiscite.

What rights does the LGBTIQ+ community have in India?

LGBTIQ+ rights in India have expanded in recent years.

In 2014, transgender people were given official recognition as a "third gender", and three years later India's top court recognised sexual orientation as protected under a fundamental right to privacy.

A year later came the landmark ruling striking down a colonial-era law that banned gay sex, and in 2022 the court ruled that unmarried partners or same-sex couples were entitled to welfare benefits.