A collection of 20 petitions have been submitted to the Supreme Court, requesting the acceptance of same-sex marriage.

These petitions contend that the freedom to marry an individual of one's preference should also be applicable to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Who are these 20 petitioners? Let’s have a look.

1) Supriyo Chakraborty Supriyo and Abhay Dang contend that not acknowledging same-sex marriage infringes upon their rights despite being wed in a cultural manner with their parent’s involvement.

2) Abhijit Iyer Mitra Abhijit along with Gopi Shankar, Giti Thadani and G Oorvasi argue that it would be unconstitutional to deny queer couples the same right that heterosexual couples have.

3) Aditi Anand Aditi and Susan Dias contend that the Special Marriage Act is discriminatory because it distinguishes between same-sex and opposite-sex couples in similar situations.

4) Amburi Roy Amburi and Aparna Saha got married in Denmark and want to register their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, but it only acknowledges marriages between opposite-sex couples.

5) Dr Kavita Arora Kavita and Ankita Khanna seek recognition and acceptance for their relationship under the Constitution and the law in regard to their desire to get married.

6) Harish Iyer Harish is a prominent equal rights activist and asks for a different interpretation of the Special Marriage Act so he can marry a person of his liking.

7) Joydeep Sengupta Joydeep, Russell Blaine Stephens and Mario Leslie Dpenha, in addition to seeking acceptance of same-sex marriage, also ask for the right of a foreign-origin spouse to apply for OCI registration without any discrimination based on gender, sex, or sexual orientation.

8) Kajal Kajal and Bhawna want their relationship to be legally recognised and seek to protect themselves from the second petitioner's family.

9) Melissa Ferrier Melissa and Kamakshi Raghavan, legally married in Australia in 2018 with two children together, seek OCI status for the foreign-origin spouse, which was denied as same-sex marriage hasn’t been validated in India.

10) Nibedita Dutta Nibedita and Pooja Srivastava got married in Varanasi through Hindu customs and seek legal recognition for their marital relationship.

11) Nikesh PP Nikesh and Sonu MS, known as the first "openly declared homosexual couple" in their community, seek to solemnise and legally register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

12) Nitin Karani Nitin and Thomas Joseph want their marriage to be recognised legally, for without it, several banks and financial institutions refused to even consider their home loan application jointly.

13) Parth Phiroze Mehrotra Parth and Uday Raj Anand advocate for the fundamental right of the LGBTQ+ community to choose their partner based on their own preferences, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

14) Rituparna Borah Rituparna, Chayanika Shah, Minakshi Sanyal and Maya Sharma request for measures to be taken to prevent violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation.

15) Sameer Samudra Sameer and Amit Gokhale request that their marriage be legally recognised under the Foreign Marriage Act of 1969.

16) Unit Sood Unit, Saattvic, Lakshmi Manoharan and Gagandeep Paul collectively request that Section 4(c) of the Special Marriage Act, which restricts recognition to unions between a man and a woman, be deemed unconstitutional.

17) Utkarsh Saxena Utkarsh and Ananya Kotia seek to get married under Indian law, specifically through the Special Marriage Act of 1954 and the Foreign Marriage Act of 1969.

18) Vaibhav Jain Vaibhav and Parag Vijay Mehta got married in the US, and now request that the Foreign Marriage Act should be interpreted to include same-sex marriages in India.

19) Dr Akkai Padmashali Dr Akkai, Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli and Umesh P (Uma) request a declaration that the Special Marriage Act of 1954 should include the words "or spouse" after the terms "husband" and "wife" to be inclusive of all individuals.

20) Zainab J Patel Zainab and her partner argue that by denying transgender individuals the right to marry the person of their choice, they are being subjected to second-class citizenship.

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