💛Last month, Supreme Court justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna in a way threw open the definition of familial relationships to incorporate unmarried partnerships and queer relationships, amid demands from LGBTQIA+ groups for legal endorsement of their marriages.
🐟“Familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships,” the two judges observed while disposing an appeal filed by a government nurse, who was denied maternity leave because her spouse had two children from an earlier marriage.
💟Although the point made by the two judges is limited to the realm of an observation made in the course of a judgment, it suggests a change in judicial understanding of and a sensitivity towards issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.
ꦍOutlook takes stock of significant rulings and legislations in recent times, putting the spotlight on judicial and legislative developments that impact the LGBTQIA+ community.
🐻(This appeared in the print edition as "‘QUEER’ING THE PITCH")