Akshat Agarwal (Yale Law School) has posted Supriyo and the Politics of Indian Family Law (Indian Law Review (Forthcoming 2024)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The Supreme Court of India's recent rejection of marriage equality in Supriyo Chakraborty v Union of India marks a break from the court's previous decisions on LGBTQ+ rights. Despite doctrinal advances in the court's liberty and equality jurisprudence, it ruled against the petitioners. I argue that a significant way of understanding Supriyo is by locating it in the longer history and politics of family law. Indian family law has long been a site of tension about the precise scope of the State's authority over the family. These tensions have been visible in debates about the constitutionality of religious personal laws and the enactment of a uniform civil code to replace existing family laws. The competing visions of the State's relationship with the family in Supriyo's majority and minority opinions exemplify these tensions. The outcome in Supriyo is thus closely implicated in and influenced by the longue duree of Indian family law.
