In an unusual incident, two cousin sisters in Jharkhand have married each other. According to a report in Hindi daily, sisters were missing for the past few days from Jhumari Telaiya, Koderma district.
Last week on Thursday, their family members found out that they had been living in a rented house in the Chandwara area after marrying each other. Their families traced them and forcefully brought them back.
According to reports, the women have been together for the past five years. Last month, they ran away and got married in a temple on November 8. They wanted to move to another city to avoid any trouble. One of them is reported to be 24-years old and the other 20-year old. One of them is a graduate while the other one is a 12th pass.
The lesbian couple says they were inspired by the relationship of New York-based lesbian couple Anjali Chakraborty and Sophie Sandals. The women said that they are well aware of the fact that homosexual relationships have been decriminalised and would stay together regardless of what troubles come their way.
Both the sisters had started living without informing their families before they got married in a Shiv temple. This is said to be the first case of same-sex marriage in Kodarma district.
Recently, Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Centre in connection with a PIL seeking recognition of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act. The court clubbed the case with the petitions of two couples seeking registration and legalisation of their marriages under the Special Marriage Act and the Foreign Marriage Act.
The PIL seeking the recognition of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act was filed by Abhjit Iyer Mitra, Gopi Shankar M, Giti Thadani and G Oorvasi. Advocate Raghav Awasthi, who appeared for the petitioners before the court of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon, argued that the language used in the HMA is gender-neutral as it does not say the marriage has to take place between a ‘man’ and a ‘woman’.
The Centre in September had opposed the petition and submitted that “our law, legal system, society, our values” do not recognise the marriage of same-sex couples. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta had submitted that allowing the prayer would run contrary to statutory provisions already in place. “Our law, legal system, society, our values do not recognise the marriage – which is a sacrament – between same-sex couple,” he had said, adding, one has to be a man and other a woman to fall or not fall within degrees of prohibited relationship under the Act
