Advocates appeared:
For the Petitioner(s): Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Sr. Adv. Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Ms. Arundhati Katju, Adv. Mr. Govind Manoharan, Adv. Ms. Shristi Borthakur, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Mr. Harshwardhan Thakur, Adv. Ms. Ritika Meena, Adv. Mr. Kailash Ram, Adv. Mr. Sharad Kumar Puri, Adv. Mr. Lavkesh Bhambhani, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Nigam, Adv. Mrs. Priya Puri, AOR Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Saurabh Kirpal, Sr. Adv. Ms. Tahira Karanjawala, Adv. Ms. Niharika Karanjawala, Adv. Ms. Sanya Dua, Adv. Mr. Shreyas Maheshwari, Adv. Mr. Raghav Kacker, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Grover, Adv. Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Adv. Mr. Keshav Sehgal, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Arora, Adv. Ms. Kalyani Bhide, Adv. Mr. Cyrus Jal, Adv. For M/S. Karanjawala & Co., AOR Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, AOR Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Aman Sharma, Adv. Mr. Gautam Bhatia, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Saxena, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Shekhri, Adv. Mr. Aman Naqvi, Adv. Ms. Hrishika Jain, Adv. Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv. Ms. Mreganka Kukreja, Adv. Mr. Abhishkar Singhvi, Adv. Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Ms. Geeta Luthra, Sr. Adv. Ms. Tara Narula, Adv. Mr. Govind Manoharan, Adv. Ms. Arundhati Katju, Adv. Mr. Rahul Sangwan, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Suman, Adv. Ms. Bhabna Das, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Mr. M.G. Aravind Raj, Adv. Ms. Shivani Luthra Lohiya, Adv. Mr. Luvkesh Bhambhani, Adv. Mr. Sivagnanam Karthikeyan, Adv. Mr. Nitin Saluja, Adv. Mr. Harshwardhan Thakur, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Sridhar, Adv. Ms. Asmita Narula, Adv. Ms. Shristi Borthakur, Adv. Mr. Navjot Singh, Adv. Ms. Diksha Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Apoorva Maheshwari, Adv. Mr. Karthik Sundar, Adv. Ms. Apurva Singh, Adv. Mr. Manas Agrawal, Adv. Ms. Ritika Meena, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Sinha, Adv. Mr. Kailash Ram, Adv. Ms. Shally Bhasin, Adv. Ms. Shivangi Sharma, Adv. Mr. Chaitanya Safaya, Adv. Ms. Sonal K Chopra, Adv. Mr. Prateek Gupta, Adv. Mr. Anand Amit, Adv. Ms. Varshini Sudhinder, Adv. Mrs. Shally Bhasin, AOR Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Ms. Arundhati Katju, Adv. Ms. Neeha Nagpal, Adv. Mr. Malak Manish Bhatt, AOR Mr. Himanshu Suman, Adv. Mr. Govind Manoharan, Adv. Ms. Samridhi, Adv. Ms. Supriya Julka, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Mr. Lavkesh Bhambhani, Adv. Mr. Harshwardhan Thakur, Adv. Ms. Shristi Borthakur, Adv. Ms. Ritika Meena, Adv. Mr. Kailash Ram, Adv. Ms. Anita Shenoy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Sr. Adv. Ms. Amritananda Chakravarty, Adv. Ms. Amritananda, Adv. Mr. Mihir Samson, Adv. Ms. Shreya Munoth, Adv. Ms. Mukunda Mamidipudi, Adv. Ms. Asawari Sodhi, Adv. Mr. Aswathi Menon, Adv. Ms. Anindita Pujari, AOR Ms. Ayushma Awasthi, Adv. Ms. Sitamsini Cherukumalli, Adv. Ms. Radhika Mahapatra, Adv. Mr. Shaileshwar Yadav, Adv. Ms. Bhumika Chouksey, Adv. Mr. Anand Grover, Sr. Adv. Ms. Nupur Kumar, AOR Mr. Paras Nath Singh, Adv. Mr. Rohin Bhatt, Adv. Ms. Muskan Nagpal, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Sahay, AOR Mr. Kartikeya Bahadur, Adv. Ms. Gayatri Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sangram Chinnappa, Adv. Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv. Ms. Mugdha Pande, Adv. Mr. Dhruva Gandhi, Adv. Mr. Harpreet Singh Gupta, Adv. Mr. Shiva Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shivika Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shaswati Parhi, Adv. Ms. Serena Jethmalani, Adv. Mr. Kailas Bajirao Autade, AOR Ms. Vrinda Grover, Adv. Mr. Suraj Sanap, Adv. Mr. Soutik Banerjee, Adv. Mr. Aakarsh Kamra, AOR Ms. Devika Tulsiani, Adv. Mr. Kumar Dushyant Singh, AOR Ms. Jayna Kothari, Sr. Adv. Mr. Rohit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Purohit, Adv. Mr. Jatin Lalwani, Adv. Ms. Aparna Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Raghav Gupta, Adv. Ms. Pooja Singh, Adv. Ms. Karuna Nundy, Adv. Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Ms. Ragini Nagpal, Adv. Mr. Ishaan Karki, Adv. Ms. Rishika Rishabh, Adv. Ms. Karuna Nundy, Adv. Mr. Rahul Narayan, AOR Mr. Shashwat Goel, Adv. Ms. Muskan Tibrewala, Adv. Mr. Amanpreet Singh, Adv. Mr. Nitish Chaudhary, Adv. Mr. A. Selvin Raja, AOR Mr. Manu Srinath, Adv. Mr. M.P. Srivignesh, Adv. Mr. Lakshman Raja. T, Adv. Mr. Mithun Kumaar N, Adv. Mr. Gopalakrishnan P, Adv. Mr. Namit Saxena, AOR Mr. Awnish Maithani, Adv. Mr. Shivam Raghuwanshi, Adv. Mr. Swapnil Jain, Adv. By Courts Motion
For the Respondent(s): Mr. R Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. K M Nataraj, A.S.G. Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Udai Khanna, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Ms. Ruchi Gaur Narula, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Mr. Arkaj Kumar, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mrs. Manisha Lavkumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ankit Yadav, Adv. Ms. Aishwarya Gupta, Adv. Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Devyani Bhatt, Adv. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. M. R. Shamshad, AOR Mr. Arijit Sarkar, Adv. Ms. Nabeela Jamil, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Ms. Sumedha Ray Sarkar, Adv. Ms. Manisha Singh, Adv. Ms. Rupali Samuel, Adv. Mr. Rishabh Parikh, Adv. Mr. Niaz A Farooqui, Adv. Mr. Arvind P. Datar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aman Jha, Adv. Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Adv. Mr. Rahul Unnikrishnan, Adv. Mr. Ankit Anandraj Shah, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Prakash Shah, Adv. Ms. Srishti Mishra, Adv. Mr. Rishi Tutu, Adv. Ms. M. Jannani, Adv. Mr. R. C. Kohli, AOR Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Mrs. Swarupama Chaturvedi, AOR Ms. Saumya Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Aayush Shivam, Adv. Mr. Saravjeet Singh, Adv. Ms. Poornima Singh, Adv. Ms. Ameya Vikrama Thanvi, Adv. Mr. Rustam Singh Chauhan, Adv. Ms. Abhijeet Singh, Adv. Ms. Shivika Mehra, Adv. Ms. B.L.N. Shivani, Adv. Ms. Shreya Jain, Adv. Mr. Pratham Sagar, Adv. Mr. Nithin Chowdhary Pavuluri, Adv. Ms. Chitrangda Rashtravara, Adv. Mr. Anirudh Singh, Adv. Ms. Anupriya Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Anuradha arputham, Adv. Ms. Shagun Thakur, Adv. Mr. Manvendra Singh Rathore, Adv. Ms. Sthavi Asthana, Adv. Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Suhaan Mukerji, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Manchanda, AOR Ms. Nisha Tomar, Adv. Mr. Gautam Bhatia, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Mr. Sayandeep Pahari, Adv. Mr. Lavkesh Bhambhani, Adv. Mr. Tanmay Sinha, Adv. Mr. V. Giri, Sr. Adv. Mr. Abhilash. M.R, Adv. Mr. Sayooj Mohandas.M, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Singh, AOR Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Santosh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Praneet Pranav, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Vikash Chandra Shukla, AOR Mr. Alabhya Dhamija, Adv. Mr. Aishvary Vikram, Adv. Ms. Sindoora Vnl, Adv. Ms. Aditi Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Prabhsimar Singh, Adv. Mr. Manan Kumar Mishra, Sr. Adv. Mr. S. Prabakaran, Sr. Adv. Mr. Apurba Kumar Sharma, Sr. Adv. Ms. Anjul Dwivedi, Adv. Dr. Ram Sankar, Adv. Mr. Raj Kumar Mahto, Adv. Mr. G Jai Singh, Adv. Mr. G Anandan, Adv. Mr. B Sasi Kumar, Adv. Ms. Jasmine Khurana, Adv. Ms. RV Shaarumathi, Adv. For M/S. Ram Sankar & Co, AOR Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Ms. Yamini Singh, Adv. Dr. Sasmit Patra, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Shrivastava, AOR Mr. Shivang Rawat, Adv. Mr. Siddhartha Sinha, AOR Mr. Abhishek Singh, Adv. Mr. Prashant Rawat, Adv. Ms. Priya Mishra, Adv. Mr. Nring Chamwibo Zeliang, Adv. Mr. Shivam Singhania, Adv. Mr. Tathagat Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anu Priya Nisha Minz, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Mr. Nitansh Jaiswal, Adv. Mr. Aditya Mishra, Adv. Mr. S. Rajurkar, Adv. Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Singh Ga, Adv. Ms. Mrigna Shekhar, Adv. Mr. Karan Bishnoi, Adv. Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR Dr. Sasmit Patra, Adv. Mr. Joby P. Varghese, AOR Mr. Upamanyu Sharma, Adv. Mr. Aby P Varghese, Adv. Mr. Dhawal Uniyal, AOR Dr. Harshvir Pratap Sharma, Sr. Adv. Miss Meera Kaura, AOR Mr. Tejas Patel, Adv. Ms. Muskaan Gandhi, Adv. Mr. Akshay, Adv. Ms. Ritika Saini, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Chandan, Adv. Mr. Pawan Aneja, Adv. Mr. Supratik Sarkar, Adv. Ms. Anindita Mitra, AOR Mr. Mohd. Zahid Hussain, AOR Mr. Comred Iqbal, Adv. Mr. Camran Iqbal, Adv. Ms. Mumtaz Javed Shaikh, Adv. Mr. Pushpinder Singh, AOR Mr. Kumar Kartikay, Adv. Mr. Jagdish Solanki, Adv. Mr. Sudhakar Kulwant, Adv. Ms. Shalini Kaul, Adv. Ms. Anurag Rana, Adv. Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, Adv. Mr. Ashish Kumar Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Y. Lokesh, Adv. Mr. V. Kandha Prabhu, Adv. Ms. Maitri Goal, Adv. Mr. Sachin Kumar Verma, Adv. Mr. Anubhav Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. N. B. V. Srinivasa Reddy, Adv. Mr. Adityaraj Patodia, Adv. Mr. Akshat Srivastava, AOR Mr. Alex Joseph, AOR Mr. Gourave Kumar Agarwal, AOR Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR Mr. Saif Zia, Adv. Mr. J Sai Deepak, Adv. Mr. V Shyamohan, Adv. Ms. Shaktiki Sharma, Adv. Mr. Avinash Sharma, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Avadhani, Adv. Ms. Anshika Bajpai, Adv. Mr. Akshat Gogna, Adv. Mr. Pranav Krishna, Adv. M/S. Kmnp Law Aor, AOR Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Adv. Mr. Anukrit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Dubey, Adv. Mr. Mekala Ganesh Reddy, Adv. Mr. Mukund P. Unny , AOR Mr. Surya Kant, AOR Ms. Manisha Narayan Aggarwal, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Tyagi, Adv. Mr. Sadashiv, AOR Dr. AP Singh, Adv. Mr. VP Singh, Adv. Mr. Fatesh Kumar Sahu, Adv. Mr. Pranav Kumar Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Dharmendra Singh Pal, Adv. Mr. Nishant Sanjay Kumar Singh, Adv. Mrs. Richa Singh, Adv. Mrs. Geeta Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Devendra Kumar Gupta, Adv. Intervenor-in-person Mr. Mahabir Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Group Captain Karan Singh Bhati, Adv. Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, AOR Ms. Apurva Mahntiyan, Adv. Mr. Kumar Prashant, Adv. Mr. Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Adv. Ms. Sanjivani Aggarwal, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Shekhavat, Adv. Ms. Filza Moonis, AOR Mr. Kaleeswaram Raj, Adv. Ms. Thulasi K Raj, Adv. Ms. Aparna Menon, Adv. Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv. Mr. Abraham Mathew, Adv. Mr. Mohammed Sadique T.a., AOR Mr. Atulesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Pulkit Srivastava, AOR Mr. Somanadri Goud Katam, AOR Ms. Mughda Pandhe, Adv. Mr. Ajay Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Wedo Khalo, Adv. Ms. Serena Jethmalani, Adv. Mr. Harshit Shishodia, Adv. Mr. Sirajuddin, Adv. Ms. Priya Aristotle, AOR Dr. Joseph Aristotle S, Adv. Mr. George Varghese, Adv. Ms. Sheela Washington, Adv. Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Navneet R, Adv. Mr. Ajay Sabharwal, Adv. Mr. Rangasaran Mohan, Adv. Ms. Megha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Akanksha Gupta, Adv. Mr. Ashish Singh, Adv. Mr. Shoumendu Mukherji, AOR Mr. Abhay Anil Anturkar, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Tank, Adv. Mr. Aniruddha Awalgaonkar, Adv. Ms. Surbhi Kapoor, AOR Mr. Gaichangpou Gangmei, AOR Mr. Arjun D. Singh, Adv. Mr. A. Mukunda Rao, Adv. Mr. Yashvir Kumar, Adv. Mr. Shekhar G Devasa, Adv. Mr. Manish Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Thashmitha Muthanna, Adv. Mr. Prashanth Dixit, Adv. Mr. Shashi Bhushan Nagar, Adv. For M/S. Devasa & Co. Ms. Manju Jetley, AOR Ms. Tanushree Bhalla, in-person

Key Points: - The Constitution does not expressly recognize a fundamental right to marry, but facets of marital relationships reflect constitutional values like dignity and liberty (!) . - The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, as currently enacted, do not provide for same-sex marriages and cannot be interpreted to include them due to institutional limitations and the need to avoid judicial legislation (!) . - Queerness is a natural phenomenon known in India since ancient times and is not urban or elite (!) . - The right to enter into a union or an abiding cohabitational relationship is protected under Part III of the Constitution, and this right extends to persons in queer relationships (!) . - Discrimination based on sexual orientation violates Article 15 of the Constitution (!) . - Transgender persons in heterosexual relationships have the right to marry under existing laws, including personal laws (!) . - Regulation 5(3) of the Adoption Regulations, 2022, which requires a stable marital relationship for joint adoption, is ultra vires the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and violates Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution by discriminating against unmarried couples, including queer couples (!) . - The CARA Circular, which excludes single prospective adoptive parents in live-in relationships, disproportionately impacts the queer community and violates Article 15 (!) . - The Union Government is directed to form a committee to examine and recommend entitlements for queer couples in unions, covering aspects like ration cards, joint bank accounts, medical decisions, jail visitation rights, access to deceased partner's body, and legal consequences such as succession and maintenance (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) . - The State must ensure that queer persons are not discriminated against and are protected from violence and coercion, including involuntary medical treatments aimed at changing gender identity or sexual orientation (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) .

What is the constitutional validity of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969 in relation to same-sex marriages?

What are the rights of LGBTQ+ persons regarding unions and cohabitation under the Constitution of India?

What is the constitutional validity of the Adoption Regulations, 2022 and the CARA Circular concerning joint adoption by queer couples?