New Delhi: More than 30 LGBTQIA+ collectives of law school students in India have said the Bar Council of India (BCI) resolution urging the Supreme Court not to deal with pleas seeking legalisation of same-sex marriage is “antithetical” to the Indian Constitution.
The apex bar body, on April 23, had expressed its concern on the same-sex marriage issue being heard in the Supreme Court. The BCI termed any major shift “catastrophic”, to overhaul something as fundamental as the concept of marriage and the matter should be left to the legislature.
The resolution, which was issued by the BCI after a joint meeting attended by representatives of all state bar councils, said any decision by the Supreme Court in such a sensitive matter may prove “very harmful” to the future generation of the country.
Condemning the stand, the LGBTQIA+ collectives of over 600 law school students said, “The (BCI) resolution is ignorant, harmful, and antithetical to our Constitution and the spirit of inclusive social life. As future members of the Bar, it has been alienating and hurtful to see our seniors engage in such hateful rhetoric.”
“It attempts to tell queer persons that the law and the legal profession have no place for them. We, the undersigned, are queer and allied student groups across Indian law schools,” they said in a statement.
The statement said that the very objective of making the Constitution was to save the minorities from the ‘rules and regulations’ drawn by the upper-class casteist and patriarchal society.
“Constitutional morality dictates that marriage equality must not be made subject to the wishes of a casteist, cis-heteronormative, and patriarchal society. It is to save people from the worst scourges of public opinion that we have a Constitution in the first place,” the collectives stated.
It also condemned the BCI’s affirmation that 99.9% of Indians oppose same-sex marriage.
“Having cited no real authority, the BCI blatantly concocts statistics of ‘99.9%’ of Indians opposing same-sex marriage,’ to run the worn-out theory that queer persons constitute a ‘minuscule minority’. The usage of hateful rhetoric is consistent throughout the Resolution; the BCI feels no shame in calling demands for marriage equality ‘morally compunctive’ and ‘a social experiment’. We condemn this hateful speech in the strongest possible terms,” the statement read.
The BCI must re-familiarise itself with the role envisioned during its establishment, look at the state of the Indian legal profession, and devote its resources to more pressing challenges rather than needlessly entering constitutional debates, law students said, condemning the body.
“We are most troubled by the BCI’s stunning disregard for constitutional morality. Our Constitution is a counterweight to majoritarianism, religious morality, and unjust public opinion..,” stated the press release from the collectives.
The students belong to 36 law schools, including NMIMS Hyderabad, National Law University Delhi, Faculty of Law, Delhi University and Gujarat National Law University.
A five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices S K Kaul, S R Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha is continuing with its hearing arguments on the pleas seeking validation of same-sex marriage for the sixth day on Thursday.
(With PTI inputs)
