The Special Marriage Act, 1954 provides a legal framework for the marriage of people belonging to different religions or castes. It governs a civil marriage where the state sanctions the marriage rather than the religion.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the Centre had urged the top court to consider leaving questions raised in the pleas seeking legal sanction for same sex marriages to Parliament.
The Hon'ble Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India continued hearing submissions from the Petitioners regarding marriage equality rights for the LGBTQAI+ community on Tuesday.
Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said: “…Is the existence of two spouses who belong to a binary gender necessary for the requirement of marriage or has our law now progressed sufficiently to contemplate that the existence of binary genders, maybe, is not necessary for your definition of marriage.”