Pleas seeking recognition and registration of same-sex marriages under the law; Navtej Johar Case Does Not Recognize Same-Sex Marriage:

The Delhi High Court has listed a batch of pleas seeking recognition and registration of same-sex marriages under the law for final hearing on November 30. The bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh has meanwhile granted time to all the parties to complete their pleadings. The Bench was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Vaibhav Jain, Dr Kavita Arora, an OCI card holder Joydeep Sengupta and his partner Russell Blaine Stephens. When the matter was taken up, Advocate Karuna Nundy appearing for Sengupta and Stephens pointed out that the couple got married in New York and the laws applicable in their case are the Citizenship Act, 1955, Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. She highlighted the Section 7A(1)(d) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, does not distinguish between heterosexual, same-sex or queer spouses. It provides that a ‘person’ married to an Overseas Citizen of India, whose marriage is registered and subsisting for two years, should be declared eligible to apply as a spouse for an OCI card.