The central legal point established in the judgment is the consideration of the recognition of same-sex marriage under various matrimonial statutes and the intention of the Union Government to transfer similar pending matters to the Supreme Court.

ORDER

1. A Writ Petition invoking Article 226 of the Constitution [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 2186 of 2020] has been filed before the High Court of Kerala on the same subject. On 21 November 2022, the following order was passed by the Single Judge of the High Court :-

"Writ Petition (civil) praying inter alia that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed along with the WP(C) the High Court be pleased to direct Respondents Nos. 2-6 and all authorities thereunder or their agents acting under them, directing them to accept and process the Notice to be given by the Petitioners under Section 5 of the Special Marriate Act, 1954, pending final disposal of this writ petition.

This petition coming on for orders upon perusing the petition and the affidavit filed in support of WP(C) and upon hearing the arguments of M/S. GEORGE VARGHESE (PERUMPALLIKUTTIYIL), A.R. DILEEP, P.J. JOE PAUL, MANU SRINATH & RAJAN G. GEORGE, Advocates for the petitioners, DEPUTY SOLICITOR GENERAL for R1 and of STATE ATTORNEY for R2 to R6, the court passed the following:

Learned Deputy Solicitor General submits that similar matters are pending before the High Court of Delhi and the Ministry is taking steps to get all the writ petitions, including the instant case, transferred to the Hon'ble Supreme Court."

3. The above order indicates that the Union Government made a statement before the High Court through the Deputy Solicitor General that the Ministry was taking steps to get all the writ petitions, including the writ petition before the High Court of Delhi, transferred to this court.

4. We have heard Mr Mukul rohatgi, Mr Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Dr Menaka Guruswami, senior counsel together with Mr Saurabh Kumar and Ms. Arundhati Katju, counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners.

5. A list of petitions pending before various courts on the same subject has been tendered during the course of the hearing and is extracted below:-

"LIST OF PENDING MATTERS BEFORE HIGH COURTS FOR RECOGNITION OF SAME SEX MARRIAGE UNDER VARIOUS MATRIMONIAL STATUTES

6. Issue notice returnable on 6 January 2023.

7. Liberty to serve the Central Agency.

8. Notice shall also be issued to the Attorney General for India, in addition.