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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday adjourned till July 6 a batch of petitions seeking recognition of same sex marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act and Foreign Marriage Act.

While seeking an adjournment in the said matter, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the Court at present was dealing with urgent matters only. Moreover, there were other matters which required urgency and “nobody is dying because they don’t have a marriage certificate”.

Senior Advocate Kirpal Singh however argued that the urgency of the matter is only to be decided by the Court and urged the Court to decide the matter expeditiously.

Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued that there are 70 million LGBTQ people in this country and they are being left out in hospitals, medical treatment.

The bench pointed out that the Union Government had also raised issues with respect to the roster of the division bench. The Court has sought clarification in this regard from the Union.

The matter was being heard by the Division bench comprising Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Amit Bansal.

The PIL has been filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Gopi Shankar, Giti Thandani, and G Oorvasi seeking directions to the central government to recognize the rights of the same-sex couples and register marriages between them under the various marriage laws.

The Central Government has argued that though same sex relationship has been decriminalized by the Supreme Court, same sex is still not acceptable in the Indian Society and cannot be included as a fundamental right.