Same-Sex Marriage/Marriage Equality- Supreme Court Hearing- LIVE UPDATES - DAY-9

Singhvi: Court may hold that personal law-related issues are beyond scope of this litigation, it follows that personal law statutes as well as provisions of secular laws that relate back to personal laws are excluded from consideration.

Singhvi: It can be surviving spouse.

CJI DY Chandrachud: When a male Hindu dues interstate, the first priority is to the widow. If it is a same sex male couple and male has died interstate, there would be no widow.

Singhvi: No my lords.

Justice Bhat: Two spouses of the same sex- one dies. What kind of estate that she...when it comes to adoption of a male, you'll be treated as a son. When it's a female you'll be treated as a daughter. Question is what is that spouse?

Singhvi: Third, for Hindu couples, the agnostic reading will be to words like male, female, widow, widower.

CJI DY Chandrachud: In other words, we're creating a new regime.

Singhvi: Second, you may say that all heterosexual couples are governed with 21A in only ISA except for Hindu couples.

CJI DY Chandrachud: You're saying that to achieve this reading, this court may extend it's gender neutral reading to the HSA and ISA?

Singhvi: Correct. It means that your lordships will first put a caveat in the beginning that we're not getting into personal laws.

Singhvi: Or the court may hold that the SMA will apply to non-heterosexual couples exactly as it is applied to heterosexual couples by virtue of the introduction of 21A.

Singhvi: According to me it is a scare argument to say that so much is happening. First, Court may elect not to pronounce on applicability of Section 21A to non-heterosexual Hindu couples in the present litigation, and leave

questions of succession open for future litigation.

Singhvi: Section 21A does not create a barrier to a constitution-compliant reading of the SMA. 21A only applies for marriages of two Hindus. Further, even when two Hindus marry under the SMA, Section 21A links the SMA regime to personal law only in narrow respects,