Child rights body backs same-sex marriages in SC - The Economic Times
Synopsis
The body under the Delhi government has also backed the demand for conferring adoption and succession rights for same-sex couples raised in a clutch of pleas pending in the apex court. In its intervention application filed this week, the statutory body submitted that same-sex couples were not in any advantageous or disadvantageous position at parenting when compared to heterosexual parents.
Coming out in support of the legalisation of same-sex marriages, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court.
The body under the Delhi government has also backed the demand for conferring adoption and succession rights for same-sex couples raised in a clutch of pleas pending in the apex court.
In its intervention application filed this week, the statutory body submitted that same-sex couples were not in any advantageous or disadvantageous position at parenting when compared to heterosexual parents.
Legal recognition to same-sex marriage will result in children growing in a non-discriminatory environment, it argued, adding that homosexual individuals should be able to enjoy basic human rights at par with heterosexual couples.
The DCPCR sought directions to the central and state government to take steps to create public awareness that same-sex family units were as normal as heterosexual family units, and - specifically - that children belonging to the former were not incomplete in any way.
It stated that non-recognition of same-sex marriages could have repercussions on children of homosexual persons. The application said by depriving the legal status to homosexual marriages, the state would be denying the legal security of dual parenthood and guardianship to the child.
It argued that such legal recognition would not dilute protections in gender-specific laws. The body sought directions to the National and State Council for Education Research and Training to check - and eliminate - homophobic content in school textbooks.
Earlier this week, Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind in an application had opposed the petitions seeking legalisation of same-sex marriages, arguing that it was an assault on the family system and against the personal laws of all religions recognising the concept of marriage between a man and woman.
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