The Supreme Court on Saturday declared the composition of the 5-judge Constitution Bench that will hear the batch of petitions seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriage.
The Bench will comprise Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Ravindra Bhat, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha.
The Apex Court will start hearing the cases from April 18.
Earlier on March 13, a three judge of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala had referred the petitions to a Constitution Bench.
The petitions challenged the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, the Foreign Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act to the extent that they did not recognise same-sex marriages.
Earlier this month, Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, opposing legal recognition for same-sex marriage in India.
Filed by its President and former MP Maulana Mahmood Madani, the petition sought intervention in the matter on the grounds that as a legal institution, marriage between the opposite sexes has been central to the legal regime of the country.
The intervention application filed by the organisation argued that the concept of marriage was more than just the socio-legal recognition of a union of “any two persons” and its recognition was on the basis of established societal norms, which cannot keep changing on the basis of variable notions based upon newly developed value system emerging from a different worldview.
On January 6, 2023, the Apex Court had transferred to itself, all petitions pending before the High Courts of Delhi, Kerala and Gujarat, seeking extension of the right to marry for the members of the LGBTQIA+ community.