New Delhi, Nov 1, 2023- A review petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the recent ruling delivered by a Constitution Bench refusing to grant any legal recognition to same-sex couples.
The review petition has been filed by one of the petitioners, Udit Sood, under Article 137 of the Constitution against the decision rendered on October 17, saying that impugned judgment is “self-contradictory and manifestly unjust.”
The majority judgment is facially erroneous because it finds that the government is violating the petitioners’ fundamental rights through discrimination and yet fails to enjoin the discrimination, it said.
In its verdict delivered on October 17, a 5-judge bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud had declined to strike down or read into gender neutral “person” in place of “male” and “female” existing under the Special Marriage Act.
The top court of the country had left it to the legislature to take a call on enacting the marriage equality law. All five judges of the Constitution Bench had unanimously agreed that there exists no unqualified right to marriage and accepted the Centre’s proposal that a committee to be headed by the Cabinet Secretary will be set up to examine what administrative steps could be taken to address basic social benefit concerns relating to same-sex couples.
However, it had asked the Union and state governments to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community is not discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation and queer individuals are not refused access to any goods or services.
As per queer Supreme Court lawyer Rohin Bhatt, there are very limited grounds like mistakes of law, error apparent on face of record, etc. for review of a decision rendered on merits. (Agency)
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