India’s same-sex marriage conundrum: Arguments, counters, legal angles

On October 17, the Chief Justice of India, giving the verdict on a bunch of cases, said the Supreme Court can't make a law to legalise same-sex marriages, and it's for Parliament to amend the existing legislation.

The legal wrangle around same-sex marriage in India is decades old now. At one end is the call to preserve centuries-old traditional beliefs that see same-sex union as an aberration. At the other is the 21st thrust on individual freedom and happiness.

And then there is the legality. What exactly the Constitution says. How best it can be interpreted. What the governments have said over the past centuries.

The Federal gives a quick summary of the myriad issues around same-sex marriages in India.