KATHMANDU, JULY 31
It has been a month that Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey have been making rounds of courts after Kathmandu District Court refused to honour the Supreme Court's order to register their marriage on June 27.
The interim order given by Judge Til Prasad Shrestha on June 27 was made public on June 28.
The writ petitioners, Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey reached Kathmandu District Court with the required documents, including the verdict of the Supreme Court to register the marriage that took place six years ago.
The couple at the centre of the legal battle for LGBTIQA+ rights in the country got married six years ago according to traditional Hindu rituals at a prominent Ganesh temple at Sohrakhutte, Paknajol, in Kathmandu, where they vowed to each other to stay together for the duration of seven reincarnations.
They paid a legal fee of Rs 500 to register the marriage in the court too. However, the marriage was not registered that day.
On July 13, the marriage registration task reached the bench of justice Madhav Prasad Mainali.
A single bench of Judge Mainali ordered that marriage registration should be done at the local registrar's office.
Mainali issued an order that there would be no marriage registration citing that the court had the provision of registered marriage only. Kathmandu District Court didn't register the marriage of Maya and Surendra, mentioning that the legal system was there to register the marriage of a man and a woman or a male and a female.
Surendra and Maya then moved to Patan High Court to register their marriage on June 14. Maya and Surendra, who approached the High Court with a petition to annul the district order, have not been able to register their marriage. The Supreme Court issued an interim order for marriage and the subordinate courts refused to follow that or-der. The married couple have been wandering from court to court for a month now.
On July 20, a single bench at the High Court heard the petition and sought a reasoning report.
The order to give the reasoning report did not reach the district court for a week. Later, a letter was sent on July 21 stating that it was not an order for a reasoning report and that it had only asked for original files.
On July 27, the joint bench of Judges Subhash Poudel and Narayan Prasad Poudel looked into the original files and returned them saying that an order should be issued to produce the reasoning report and it should go to a single bench.
Meanwhile, on July 30, a single bench of Justice Hari Prasad Poudel heard the petition again and ordered the reasoning report. According to the order, the High Court sent the letter on July 31.
"Earlier, Kathmandu District Court played with words and overturned the order of the Supreme Court. Now, Patan High Court and Kathmandu District Court are exchanging letters, keeping the case on hearing and playing with technical terms and procedures," said former lawmaker and founder of Blue Diamond Society Sunil Babu Pant.
He further said, "The court is not giving verdict, but holding the case forever instead of giving justice. Such procedures of the justice system have caused injustice to Maya and Surendra and kept them from getting their marriage registered due to a legal lacuna."
"It is objectionable and regrettable that the sexual and gender minority community's right to get married is being suppressed by playing with technical terms and procedures instead of guaranteeing justice on time to LGB- TIQA+ through an efficient judicial system," Pant added.
As per the interim order of the Supreme Court, it should be ensured that the couple Maya and Surendra, including the couples of sexual and gender minority communities, can register their marriage without any objection, according to the sexual and gender minorities community.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 1, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
