New Delhi: A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court will deliver in a short while its much anticipated judgement on pleas seeking legal validation for same-sex marriage.
The bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha, reserved its verdict on May 11 after IT heard it for 10 days.
The judgement will be delivered on Tuesday and accordingly, the information will be updated on the apex court website, sources said.
During the arguments, the Centre had told the apex court that any constitutional declaration made by it on pleas seeking legal validation for same-sex marriage may not be a "correct course of action" as the court will not be able to foresee, envisage, comprehend and deal with its fallout.
The Centre informed the top court that it had received responses from seven states on the issue of same-sex marriage. The union government also listed the governments of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Assam as having opposed the petitioners' contention seeking legal endorsement for such wedlock.
The Supreme Court had commenced hearing arguments in the matter on April 18.
While hearing the matter on May 11, the country's highest judicial body had said it "cannot give a declaration on same-sex unions on the anticipation as to how Parliament is likely to respond to it."
The bench's observation came after one of the advocates appearing for the petitioners referred to judicial verdicts, including in the instant triple talaq case. The advocate noted that the apex court gave a declaration to pass a law penalising the practice, and it was a matter for "fairly easy legislative consensus".
Also, the bench made it clear during the arguments that it will not go into personal laws governing marriages while deciding the pleas seeking judicial validation for same-sex marriages and said the very notion of a man and a woman, as referred to in the Special Marriage Act, is not "an absolute based on genitals".
