Inder and Ashish, a gay couple from Mumbai, exchanged rings in 2017. This was an informal celebration where they had to declare to their family that they were a couple. They were expecting that the Supreme Court would give an order in the favour of the community on Tuesday and they would officially have a wedding and call themselves “husband and husband”.
“In India, marriage is a way of acceptance by the society. Our families had hoped that the Supreme Court would allow us to get married and we would be able to adopt kids. Our family wants us to take the family name further. But looks like it is not happening anytime soon. We have a long way ahead, but hopefully, for the new generation, this dream will become a reality,” said Inder.
“We could have easily gotten married and settled in some other country, where same-sex marriage is legal. Of course, it wouldn’t have any legal binding in our country, and we would have to stay in some other country. But, we want to be in India and have those rights, like any other heterosexual couple,” said Ashish.
Just like Inder and Ashish, there are many couples from the community who have had a ceremonial wedding, which has no legal standing in the country.
Dr Surabhi Mitra, one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case, had a commitment ring ceremony in December 2021 in Nagpur along with family members and friends.
This was their way of showing commitment towards each other because same-sex marriage has not yet been legalised in the country.
The couple has been wanting to get married at a destination wedding in Goa, which is why they supported this petition.
However, their dreams would have to “wait for a couple of years more before they can be executed”.
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