Life of Hyderabad gay couple: Marriage over, struggle for rights continue

Hyderabad: Supriyo Chakraborty,32, and Abhay Dang, 35, broke the societal taboo last year when they got married. They were the first gay couple in the Telugu States to get married

A couple of months after their marriage, the couple filed Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court seeking recognition of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli heard a PIL. The couple prayed for the extension of the right to marry a person of one's choice to LGBTQ+ citizens as well.

"We have been together for more than 10 years and yet we continue to be strangers in the eyes of law. We do not enjoy the same rights as a married couple," said Supriyo in conversation with NewsMeter.

"Marriage brings with it a basket of rights, such as the right to take healthcare decisions for your spouse, the right to inheritance, etc. We want access to those rights, and hence it is very important to get legal recognition for our marriage," he said.

Supriyo and Abhay explained how they use the word 'partner' to address each other instead of 'spouse' or 'husband'.

"The term partner does not do justice to our relationship. In our eyes, we are just like any other married couple, and hence we want the law to recognize the true nature of our relationship," Supriyo explained.

The absence of legal status also harbors many problems for the couple.

For example, it was very difficult for Supriyo to get address proof for our shared household as the house is in Abhay's name. "In contrast, opposite-sex couples wouldn't have faced any such issue. In addition, we had to purchase two separate health insurance policies instead of single health insurance," Supriyo said.

Further, the couple has not been able to make healthcare decisions for one another and had to mention their parents' names as nominees for their respective health insurance policies.

"We got married post-Covid. We realized that life is so unpredictable and fragile when we were affected by it. But we want our rights," Abhay said.

"Supreme Court has always guarded the rights of inter-caste and inter-faith couples to marry a person of their choice and it should continue the constitutional journey by including same-sex LGBTQ+ couples," Supriyo added,

The SC directed the Centre to file a counter affidavit and posted the matter after four weeks.