The Central government today opposed the legal recognition of same-sex marriage and said that same-sex relationships and heterosexual relationships are clearly distinct classes which cannot be treated identically. The Centre filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court today while opposing a plea seeking recognition of same-sex marriage in the country.
The Central government said living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same sex individuals (which is decriminalised now) is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife, and children which necessarily presuppose a biological man as a 'husband', a biological woman as a 'wife' and the children born out of the union between the two.
The notion of marriage itself necessarily and inevitably presupposes a union between two persons of the opposite sex. This definition is socially, culturally, and legally ingrained into the very idea and concept of marriage and ought not to be disturbed or diluted by judicial interpretation," the Centre said.