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The Delhi High Court today issued notice on a plea seeking a declaration that the right to legal recognition of a same sex marriage or queer marriage is a fundamental right under Articles  14,  15,  19  AND  21  irrespective of a person’s gender, sex or sexual orientation.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh has tagged the plea with similar other petitions and listed the matter on August 27 for next hearing

The petition has been filed in pursuit of getting Overseas  Citizen of India  (“OCI”) card to  same sex spouse of an Indian citizen to visit India amid the restrictions imposed due the Covid-19 pandemic.

Petitioners Joydeep  Sengupta  and  Blaine  Stephens are a same sex couple recognized as  a  legally  married  couple  in  the  U.S.,  France,  and  Canada,  the  three countries  where  they  have  primarily  lived  and  worked  in  the  last  twenty years. Joydeep  Sengupta ,  was  born  in  India  and  was  an Indian  citizen  at  birth. Mr.  Sengupta  is  a Canadian  Citizen  now  and  since  2011  he  has  been  an  Overseas  Citizen of India  (“OCI”). His husband Blaine  Stephens is a  U.S.  citizen  and  currently  a  long  term  resident  of  France. The couple is expecting their first child in July, 2021.

The petitioners' contention is that as one set of grandparents to the child resides in India and due to this ongoing pandemic both the petitioners will be needing to visit India frequently.

This  prompted  the  Petitioner  to  ascertain  the  legal  position on  the  eligibility  of  Mr. Stephens to  apply  for  OCI  status. Since  they aren’t  citizens  of  India,  they  approached    Mario  Dpenha (Petitioner no. 3)  , an  Indian  citizen,  a  queer  rights academic   to  file  RTIs on  the  issue.

The petitioners have submitted that Section  7A(1)(d)  of  the  Citizenship  Act,  1955  entitles  a  spouse  of foreign  origin  of  an  OCI  Cardholder,  whose  marriage  has  been registered  and  subsisting  for  at  least  two  years  to  apply  for  OCI  status. As  per  a  notification  issued  by the  MHA,  Foreigners  Division,  in  the case  of a  marriage  solemnized  in  a  foreign  country,  the  spouse  of an  OCI or  Indian  citizen  applying  for  OCI  may  present  the  said  marriage certificate  for  such  a  marriage,  which  must  be  apostilled  or  certified  by the  concerned  Indian  mission  or  post.

Blaine Stephens  being  the spouse  of  an  OCI  cardholder,  i.e, Joydeep Sengupta  is  keen  to  apply for  OCI  status  through  this  procedure.

The  Petitioners  have submitted that consensual  sexual  acts  between  persons  of  the  same  sex  have  already been  decriminalized  by  the   Supreme  Court  in Navtez  Singh  Johar's case.

The petitioners have contented that the  right  to  marry  a  person  of  one’s choice  as  an  essential  component of  the  right  to  autonomy,  privacy  within  Article  21  has  been  recognized by  a  catena  of  judgments  in  India  as  well  as  by  foreign  courts. Specifically, the right  to  legal  recognition  of  same  sex  or  non-heterosexual  marriages has  also  been  upheld  as  a  fundamental  right  in  a number  of  judgments  by  foreign  courts,  such  as  the  Supreme  Court  of the  United  States  and  the  Constitutional  Court  of  South  Africa.

It  is  submitted by the Petitioners that  even  though  Indian  law  is  silent  on  the recognition  of  same  sex  marriages,    it  is  a  settled  principle  that  where  a marriage  has  been  solemnized  in  a  foreign  jurisdiction,  the  law  to be applied  to  such  marriage  or  matrimonial  disputes  is  the  law  of  that jurisdiction.  Thus,  a  marriage  like  that  of  Petitioners  being validly  registered  under  US  law,  must  necessarily  meet  the  requirements of  the  term  ‘registered’  under  Section  7A(1)(d)  of  the  Citizenship Act.

The petition has been filed through Advocate Karuna Nundy.

 

Case Title: Mr. Joydeep Sengupta & Ors vs Union of India and Ors