The Queer Alliance (QA), Savitri Phule Ambedkar Caravan (SPAC) and the Feminist Alliance (AOW) have collectively issued a statement in opposition to the Bar Council of India’s recent press release in relation to the ongoing marriage equality case in the Supreme Court. As per the statement, the body has not only exceeded its mandate but also made unwarranted and reprehensible statements against the queer community and their right to marry. The statement is issued with 36 other law schools all across India.
The statement quotes that
“The BCI ought to respect the letter and spirit of the Advocates Act, 1961, which clearly defines the body’s mandate based on its regulatory function. Nothing in the Act, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, empowers the BCI to pass comments on sub judice matters. The passing of this Resolution is entirely unwarranted and a deplorable attempt by the BCI to illegitimately create influence for itself. The BCI must re-familiarise itself with the role envisioned during its establishment, look at the state of the Indian legal profession, and devote its resources to more pressing challenges – rather than needlessly entering constitutional debates.”
“The ongoing case concerns the recognition of fundamental rights (to equality, freedom, and privacy) that queer persons already have under the Constitution. The BCI denies any role of fundamental rights in its Resolution, instead characterising marriage equality as a political decision. This shows their heinous indifference towards the reality of queer and trans persons living as second-class citizens in our country. Consequently, the BCI completely misses that fundamental rights cannot be made to suffer from legislative inaction.”
The students have also mentioned that disregard of constitutional morality by BCI and quoted that
“We are most troubled by the BCI’s stunning disregard for constitutional morality. Our Constitution is a counterweight to majoritarianism, religious morality, and unjust public opinion. Constitutional morality dictates that marriage equality must not be made subject to the wishes of a casteist, cis-heteronormative, and patriarchal society. It is to save people from the worst scourges of public opinion that we have a Constitution in the first place. To subject fundamental rights to societal decisions is to betray the vision of morality our Constitution commits us to; it is to betray the Constitution itself. The Supreme Court has already warned of majoritarian bias and protected fundamental rights against its tyranny in K.S. Puttaswamy (Aadhaar-5J.) v. Union of India, (2019) 1 SCC 1, holding that the exercise of fundamental rights is insulated from ‘the disdain of majorities, whether legislative or popular.”
The students have called upon the legal fraternity to disavow all discriminatory, parochial, and regressive beliefs that hinder the advance of peoples’ movements towards justice.