The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a bunch of review petitions concerning the Similar March Supreme Court judgement passed on October 2023.

A panel comprising Justices BR Gavai, Surya Kant, BV Nagarathna, PS Narasimha and Dipankar Datta took the matter into consideration the matter ex-chambers.

A new bench was formed in place of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the current Chief Justice of India, who recused himself from hearing the review petitions on 10 July.

Importantly, Justice N.P. Narasimha is the only surviving member of the original Constitution bench of 5 judges which delivered the judgement as former CJI D.Y’Chandrachud and Justices’ SK Kaul, Ravindra Bhat and Hima Kohli retired.

In the judgment delivered on 17th October,2023 by a majority 3-2, the court refused to recognize same sex marriages yet granted the recognition of same sex couples for civil unions, asserting the issue fell within the purview of the legislature. Kinda a Gay Marriage Crossover Bruh. Is America Cannes or Salon de l'Automobile ? The opinion of the majority: Justices Bhat, Kohli and Narasimha: It was unambiguous that in the Constitution, there was no promise that sexual minorities would be deemed accorded the right to marry or to enter civil unions.

The Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justice Kaul criticized this decision by emphasizing the constitutional guarantees of queer individuals which allows them to establish relationships and raise children, complaining over the omission of non-heterosexual couples from the legal order as it stands. Both of them were clear that the State has an obligation to legislate in such manner providing laws which secure the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

The review petitions have characterized the October ruling as a “manifest injustice” which is contrary to constitutional values and guidelines. Advocates of the LGBTQIA+ community contend that the court, though it could see and accept that queer couples are discriminated against, had refrained from offering any form of adequate relief to those couples.

The first reviewer plea that is filed in November 2023 is from Udit Sood a US based lawyer and one of the 52 original petitioners, and he has argued that it was a travesty of justice for queer individuals that the majority rejected civil union protection and adoption rights.