The Supreme Court on Saturday formed a new Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to hear a series of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages, reported The Hindu.

The bench will also comprise Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, PS Narasimha and Hima Kohli. The hearing will begin on April 18.

The petitions are seeking recognition of same-sex marriages, arguing that the right to marry a person of one’s choice should extend to LGBTQIA+ citizens as well. The Central government, however, has opposed the petitions.

In an affidavit, the government said that living together as partners and having sexual relationships by same sex individuals is not comparable to the Indian family unit concept that involves biological man and biological woman.

“The question here is whether this relationship, as part of the right to dignity, can be given recognition by the state,” argued Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The government’s stand is in consonance with that of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, who have maintained that marriages should be allowed only among opposite genders.

Chandrachud had said the case is an interplay between the Constitutional rights of life, liberty, dignity, equal treatment of LGBTQIA+ community members on one side and statutory laws that only consider marriage between a biological man and woman.

Meanwhile, the petitioners have argued that in the court’s 2018 verdict decriminalising homosexuality, it had also upheld the individual right to family and choice of partners.

“Right to love and marry cannot be withheld from a class of persons solely on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the petitioners have said. “Right to marry is the natural consequence of the decriminalisation judgement.”

Also read:

All you need to know about the same-sex marriage petitions before the Supreme Court