Centre notifies panel led by Cabinet Secretary on issues of queer community

The six-member committee will comprise secretaries from the Ministry of Home Affairs; Ministry of Women and Child Development; Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Law Ministry.

On October 17, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud declined to recognise the right to marry as a fundamental right for same-sex couples.

However, in a minority opinion, CJI Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul ruled in favour of civil unions, stopping short of marriage, to grant legal rights to same-sex couples. They said that although marriage itself doesn’t give any rights to the parties, it gives certain “intangible benefits in the form of expressive advantages”, “a bouquet of rights” that a married couple can exercise.

“For the right to have real meaning, the State must recognise a bouquet of entitlements which flow from an abiding relationship of this kind. A failure to recognise such entitlements would result in systemic discrimination against queer couples,” the minority opinion, authored by CJI Chandrachud, said.

On October 17, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud declined to recognise the right to marry as a fundamental right for same-sex couples.

During the hearing of the case, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had given a statement before the top court that a committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary will be constituted to set out the rights which will be available to queer couples in unions.

“The committee shall set out the scope of the benefits which accrue to such couples,” the SC had recorded in the judgment.

Among the legal entitlements listed out by the SC are: the right of queer partners to be treated as part of the same family for a ration card; setting up of a joint bank account; jail visitation; to be considered “next of kin” by medical practitioners, and accessing the body of the deceased partner to arrange the last rites.

The top court also mentioned “legal consequences such as succession rights, maintenance, financial benefits such as under the Income Tax Act 1961, rights flowing from employment such as gratuity and family pension and insurance”.