Same Sex Marriage- Supreme Court Hearing Live

Rohatgi: I can't be criminalized but the stigmatisation continues.

Rohatgi: Choice of an individual is not an "elitist concept". It is innate. People are born with it. So was Nero born, thousands of years ago.

Justice Bhat: Let's not model ourselves on Nero.

Rohatgi laughs.

Rohatgi: I cannot be told that I should wait for parliament to grant me these rights when I'm dead and gone.

Rohatgi: Last 70 years this court has been the guarantor of fundamental rights. It's noone's right to say that even if one man comes against this, you better wait for parliament. This court has never accepted this. 32 is itself a fundamental right.

Rohatgi: The other side is talking as if this is 1920s or 30s and they're saying you're not equal, be happy with the 377 judgements, be happy with the rights you already have.

Rohatgi: I cannot be discriminated upon because we may be ten thousand and the others are ten crores. This is the core of my submission.

Rohatgi refers to judgements again.

Rohatgi: My rights are equal to those of the others. They have a right to marriage, the right of respectability. A concomitant of rights flow from that respectability. The same should be granted to me.

Rohatgi: This is the core of my arguments. Because we're miniscule, because we have faced this over the years, because we have been sidetracked, because we're looked at with disdain, because we're looked as QUEERS, you're not good.

Rohatgi (reads from a judgement): "The test of popular acceptance does not furnish a valid basis to disregard rights which are conferred with the sanctity of constitutional protection"

Rohatgi: We are facing this disdain, this stigma.