[Same-Sex Marriage] Delhi High Court Directs Centre To "Positively" File Its Reply Within 2 Weeks In Plea For Live Streaming Of Proceedings

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government to "positively" file its reply within 2 weeks in an application seeking live streaming of proceedings in the case concerning recognition and registration of same-sex marriages in the country.

The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla ordered,

"Reply has not been filed by the Centre. Let the same be filed positively within 2 weeks."

The application was filed by three professionals based out of Mumbai and Karnataka, in the petition filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra seeking registration of marriages of LGBTQIA couples under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Notice in the application was issued in November 2021. It submitted that a substantial number of people (about 7-8% population of country) are interested in the proceedings and outcome of this matter. However, they are unable to witness the proceedings due to space constraint in Courtrooms and limitation of technical platforms like Cisco Webex, which is currently being used by the High Court for hybrid functioning.

Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul today submitted that it has already been 4 months since notice was issued and if the Centre doesn't respond on this plea then another adjournment will be sought. Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy pointed that the matter is being adjourned for last three occasions and argued that Constitutional rights of the LGBTQ community that were recognized in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India are at peril.

Kaul further submitted that in the Swapnil Tripathi case, Centre has already submitted before the Supreme Court that all matters of national importance will be live-streamed. "This case is of seminal importance to a big section of the population," he said.

Accordingly, the Court directed that reply to the application be filed in two weeks.

Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal expressed concern about the time that may be required to arrange the infrastructure for Live Streaming and urged that the Centre be directed to take expeditious steps in that regard. However, the Court assured that sufficient infrastructure is in place.

The matter will now be taken up on May 17.

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