‘Unmarried Partners, Queer Relationships To Be Considered As Family’: Supreme Court

In the midst of the taboo surrounding domestic partners who reside together, the Supreme Court made a progressive observation during a hearing. The apex court said that domestic or unmarried partnerships, and even queer relationships, constitute a family.

“Familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships”, the Supreme Court has observed, while noting that an ”atypical” manifestation of a family unit is as real as its traditional counterpart and deserves protection under the law, as per PTI reports.

During the hearing, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said that the understanding of the word “family” both in the law and in society is that ”it consists of a single, unchanging unit with a mother and a father (who remain constant over time) and their children.

The apex court bench further said, “This assumption ignores both, the many circumstances which may lead to a change in one’s familial structure, and the fact that many families do not conform to this expectation, to begin with. Familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships.”

This landmark hearing comes after several issues have been raised in the recent past about LGBT couples residing together, and the push for gay and queer marriages. After the decriminalization of homosexuality in 2018, many have also been urging for the right to adopt for live-in couples.

The bench said that a household may be a single-parent household for any number of reasons, including the death of a spouse, separation, or divorce. “Similarly, the guardians and caretakers (who traditionally occupy the roles of the “mother” and the “father”) of children may change with remarriage, adoption, or fostering,” it said.

The bench said that these manifestations of love and families may not be typical but they are as real as their traditional counterparts and such atypical manifestations of the family unit are equally deserving not only of protection under the law but also of the benefits available under social welfare legislation.