New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) The very notion of a man and a woman is not “an absolute based on genitals”, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while discussing the ambit of gender and whether it expanded beyond the biological sex of a person.
In a day-long hearing on the pleas seeking legal validation for same-sex marriages, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of submissions in favour and against the petitions, and one of them was that even the Special Marriage Act has terms like “a man and a woman” and hence using term ‘person’ instead may unsettle existing statutes.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for one of the petitioners, said same-sex marriage was a narrow term and, if the court were to grant marriage equality to gay couples, it should be for consenting adults across "bodily gender and sex spectrum".
