The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Sunday, April 23, passed a resolution expressing anxiety over the ongoing Supreme Court hearing on the petitions seeking marriage equality for LGBTQIA+ persons. The unanimous resolution was passed at a joint meeting of all the state Bar councils with the Bar Council of India, stating that subject matters like marriage equality must be dealt with by the competent legislature after an elaborate consultation process involving different social and religious groups. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud commenced hearing the pleas on April 18.
The BCI claimed that "any indulgence by the apex court in the matter will destabilise the country's social structure". "India is one of the most socio-religiously diverse countries of the world, consisting of a mosaic of beliefs. Hence, any matter which is likely to tinker with the fundamental social structure, a matter which has a far-reaching impact on our socio-cultural and religious beliefs, should necessarily come through the Legislative process only,” the meeting opined, adding that any decision by the apex court in such a sensitive matter, may prove very harmful for the future generations of our country.
"As per documented history, ever since the inception of human civilisation and culture, marriage has been typically accepted and categorised as a union of biological man and woman for the twin purpose of procreation and recreation. In such a background, it would be catastrophic to overhaul something as fundamental as the conception of marriage by any Law Court, however well-intentioned it may be," the resolution said.
The resolution also claimed that every responsible and prudent citizen of the country is worried about the future of his/her children after coming to know about the pendency of this matter before the Supreme Court.
"The vast majority believes that any decision of the apex court in the petitioners' favour in this issue will be treated to be against the culture and socio-religious structure of our country. The Bar is the mouthpiece of the common man and, therefore, this meeting is expressing their anxiety over this highly sensitive issue. The Joint Meeting is of the clear opinion that if the Supreme Court shows any indulgence in this matter, it will result in destabilising the social structure of our country in coming days," the BCI resolution mentioned, adding that more than 99.9% of people of the country are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage.
According to the BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, the meeting also unanimously resolved to ask the Union government for effective laws to protect the lives, interests, and privileges of the advocates and their families, and to provide them compensation in case of any attack. The Union government had earlier opposed the petitions and sought the batch of petitions to be dismissed on the grounds of maintainability.
Meanwhile, an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has been filed asking for the documents and research the BCI went through to arrive at the statistics that “99.9% of Indians are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage”. The RTI also questions whether the BCI officials have undergone the sensitisation training as mandated by the Supreme Court’s Navtej Singh Johar judgement that decriminalised Section 377 (that criminalised consensual sex between people of the same sex).
(With IANS inputs)