India’s top court ruled on Tuesday that it cannot legalise same-sex marriages because it does not have the authority to do so but the parliament does.
The court clarified the matter by stating that creating a law, such as a law for legalising same-sex marriages, falls under the jurisdiction of parliament.
The verdict was reached by a five-judge bench, headed by DY Chandrachud, the chief justice of India, where he heard arguments that were presented between April and May of this year.
He later announced the 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.
Additionally, two of the other four judges agreed with Chandrachud on the court not legalising same-sex marriages, making it a majority.
Meanwhile, two other judges are yet to speak on the matter, Reuters reported.
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”.
