Same-Sex Marriage: Mukul Rohatgi mentions review petitions against Supreme Court verdict; seeks open court hearing

Senior Counsel and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi Thursday made an urgent mentioning before the Supreme Court seeking open court hearing of the review petitions challenging the top court's verdict in the same-sex marriage case. .Rohatgi told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud that the review petitions should be heard in open court since the Constitution bench which delivered the verdict had denied relief despite all the judges on the bench agreeing that denial of right to marriage between persons of same gender amounted to discrimination against such persons. "All judges agree that there is discrimination... If there is discrimination then there has to be a remedy. Lives of large number of people depend. We have urged for open court hearing. It is to be listed on November 28. We are seeking open court hearing," he saidCJI Chandrachud said that he will examine the request and take a call."We will look at it and decide," the CJI responded.Review petitions are usually heard by the Supreme Court in chamber and there are no oral arguments made by lawyers. However, they are heard in open court in exceptional cases and also in matters involving death penalty..A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha had on October 17 ruled against recognising same-sex marriages.The Court had stated that the law as it stands today does not recognize the right to marry or the right of same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, leaving it up to the Parliament to make laws enabling these rights.The Court had also held that the law does not recognize the rights of same-sex couples to adopt children. .The majority opinion was delivered by Justices Bhat, Kohli and Narasimha with Justice Narasimha delivering a separate concurring opinion.CJI Chandrachud and Justice Kaul had delivered separate dissenting judgments.All the judges were unanimous in holding that there is no unqualified right to marriage and same-sex couples cannot claim that as a fundamental right.The Court also unanimously turned down the challenge to provisions of the Special Marriage Act.The majority of Justices Bhat, Kohli and Narasimha also held that civil unions between same sex couples are not recognised under law and they cannot claim right to adopt children either.However, CJI Chandrachud and Justice Kaul in their separate minority opinions had ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to recognise their relationships as civil union and can claim consequential benefits.In this regard, they had also said that such couples have the right to adopt children and had struck down adoption regulations to the extent it prevented the same.