NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Friday said it would examine in February next year a plea opposing same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act on the ground that marriage in Hinduism is allowed only between a man and woman since times immemorial.
“Marriages in societies like Hindu are very much part of their religion and derived and associated with their divine entities as well as religious texts and thereby hold significant sentimental values,” the plea said.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh listed the application by Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation seeking to be heard in the main petition for recognition of same-sex marriages for February 3, when all the batch matters will be heard.
The application said the petition seeking same-sex marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act was not only against the religious system of Hindu Marriage but also an act to bring changes abruptly without any reason and this change would impact other aspects like inheritance, adoptance and religious ecosystem of the Hindu society that are critically hinged on the religious ‘sanskar of vivah’.
“As per vedas (the sourcebook of Hinduism), marriage happens only between a male and a female to fulfil certain worldly and religious duties. In fact, most veda mantras recited during Hindu vivah or describing the ritual of marriage refer to a biological male and a biological female. This has been the practice since times immemorial across almost all Hindu sampradayas without any variation in essence,” said the application.
