Beside Marriage Equality: Conversations on Supriyo

Abstract

This case comment takes the form of an epistolary exchange between the authors as they reflect on the Indian Supreme Court’s 2023 judgment in Supriyo @ Supriya Chakraborty & Anr v Union of India, which denied the existence of a constitutional right to marriage and deferred the responsibility of legalising same-sex marriage to the legislature. Through a staged conversation, the comment explores personal subject positions, legal frameworks, and the intricate entanglements of intimacy and state recognition. The authors consider how the law leaves imprints on our bodies and, in turn, how our embodied lives reshape the law through acts of resistance and reinterpretation. The dialogue moves beyond legal critique to ask whether marriage can be queered or reimagined in ways that foster liberation. In doing so, we foreground the generative potential of conversation as a space of freedom—one that reflects the authors’ lived experiences and the ongoing struggles for queer recognition and justice.