“It is wrong to call gay marriage elite, government has no such data”: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The matter of recognizing gay marriage is being debated in the Supreme Court. The hearing will continue on Wednesday. CJI Chandrachud has questioned the arguments of the central government to call this issue an urban elitist concept. It has become more prevalent after homosexuality was decriminalised.

But it may seem more urban as more urbanites are coming out openly.  But the government has no data to prove that it is an urban elite concept.
The court said the principle is actually very simple that the state cannot discriminate against a person on the basis of “characteristic” for which the individual has no control. When you say that this is an innate feature, it is also an answer to the contention that it is very elitist for urban people and has a bias for a class. There cannot be a bias for that class when it is innate
On Tuesday too, the CJI had said that amid the Navtej Johar judgment of 2018, in which the Supreme Court had decriminalised homosexual acts, our society has now got more acceptance. It has got acceptance in our universities. Our universities don’t just have urban children, they are from all walks of life. Our society has accepted same-sex relationships. Things have changed in the last five years. An acceptance that is involved. We are conscious of it.