KATHMANDU, JULY 13
Kathmandu District Court has refused to register the marriage of a same-sex couple who approached KDC following an order from the Supreme Court.
Kathmandu District Court Justice Madhav Prasad Mainali refused to register the same sex marriage of Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey, stating they were not heterosexual couple in outright defiance of the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed same sex marriage and other non-traditional heterosexual marriage.
Gender and sexual minority communities have expressed displeasure at this.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the government to register such marriages as a temporary record.
"Setback for the LGBTIQA+ communities' rights but we will crush such prejudice and bigotry by such judges who are supposed to deliver justice. We will go to the Supreme Court again to find a solution to this injustice by Justice Mainali," said Sunil Babu Pant, founder of Blue Diamond Society and former lawmaker, adding, "We ask all of our community members to stand together and all our allies to continue to express their solidarity.
We will continue our fight until justice prevails."
It is mentioned in the decision of the court that the district court was not made an opponent when the Supreme Court gave the interim order.
"According to the legal provisions for marriage through registration in Section 77 of the National Civil Code, 2017, it is presented by this court that marriage is done by registration and in Section 77 (1) there is a legal provision that a man or woman can apply for marriage through registration. As the two persons applying to get married through registration are not men and women of different sexes, the court has refused to register the marriage through illegal registration mentioned in section 77 according to the application," the Kathmandu District Court order stated."Despite the Supreme Court decision, Kathmandu District Court Justice Madhav Prasad Mainali refused to register the marriage by playing with legal words," said Pant.
On June 28, a single bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha had issued an interim order on a writ petition filed at the Supreme Court regarding the registration of samesex marriage.
"An interim order has been issued in the name of the opponents to make necessary arrangements to register the dispute so that temporary record of the marriage remains," reads the Supreme Court order.
Earlier, in the case filed in the Supreme Court, the Government of Nepal, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Secretariat of the Federal Parliament, the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare were made defendants.
Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey got married six years ago.
The couple had been in love for eight years and said that they were facing various practical and social problems due to the fact that their marriage was not registered.
At the initiative of Sunil Babu Pant, nine people, including BDS President Pinky Gurung, had filed a writ petition showing that the law of Nepal itself was an obstacle to same-sex marriage.
The writ petition sought an interim order to register same-sex and sexual minority marriages.
Supreme Court Justice Til Prasad Shrestha had ordered the government to arrange marriage registration so that temporary records remain.
The interim order also states that if there is a basis or reason why the order should not be issued, a written response must be submitted through the Attorney General's Office within 15 days.
In the interim order, it is also mentioned that "Article 12 of the Constitution of Nepal states that there is a provision to obtain a certificate of citizenship of Nepal with gender identity, and Article 69 (1) of the Civil Code, 2017 stipulates that every person has the freedom to marry."
A version of this article appears in the print on July 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
