JOIN USVHP 'worried' about SC taking up same-sex marriage issue in 'tearing hurry'
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday said that it is worried about the “tearing hurry” in which the Supreme Court has taken up the issue of marriage equality to the LGBTQIA+ community. Matters of marriage can only be legislated by the legislature as per Article 246 of the Constitution, the Hindu right wing outfit said.
On Monday, the legal cell of the VHP passed a resolution saying that there is “no grave urgency” to decide on the issue of same sex marriage, when there are “other important issues in the socio-economic sphere”. “While issues of eradication of poverty, implementation of basic and free education to all citizens, right to pollution-free environment, problems of population control are affecting the entire country, there is no urgency shown nor judicial activism seen on the part of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” the resolution says.
Calling marriage a “union of two heterosexuals” and an “advancement of the human race”, the VHP said that various scripts, writings and enactments, across religions, refer to marriage of only two people of opposite sex. “... in India, marriage is not merely a union of two individuals but also it is a union of two families and the reputation of the families is being tested on the basis of marriages in their respective families,” the VHP said.
The VHP further said that the Constitution has entrusted legislative functions to the Parliament and State Legislatures and not to the Supreme Court or High Courts. It said that, in another matter, related to reservation of Dalits who converted into Christianity or Islam, the Supreme Court has “compelled” Parliament to accept the recommendations of a particular report which was set aside by the Parliament sixteen years ago.
The LGBTQIA+ community, in their plea, have sought to amend the Special Marriage Act, 1954 to ensure marriage equality to people of all genders and sexual orientations. Hindu right-wing organisations have long opposed the move. However, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has supported the decriminalisation of Article 377, but it does not support the move to legalise marriage within the community.
The VHP contends that the Special Marriage Act applies only to biological males and females, and so, any attempt to strike down any provision of the Act and to newly define a particular provision under the Act will clearly amount to rewriting the Act and taking over the power to legislate from the Parliament. “Marriage is a socio-legal institution which can be created, recognised, conferred with legal sanctity and regulated only by the competent legislature in exercise of its power under Article 246 of the Constitution of India,” the VHP says.