V.L v E.L
The U.S. Supreme Court, without hearing oral argument, has unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied parental rights to a lesbian adoptive mother who had split with her partner. The decision is a direct repudiation of an Alabama Supreme Court decision that refused to recognize a Georgia adoption.
Deepika Singh vs Central Administrative Tribunal and Others - The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that same-sex couples and other non-traditional families, like unmarried partnerships and single parents, are entitled to legal protection and social benefits. The judgement assumes significance with activists demanding the recognition of LGBT marriages and civil unions and allowing live-in couples to adopt after the SC decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which had criminalised sexual activities “against the order of nature”, including homosexuality.
While granting the relief of maternity leave to Singh regardless of the fact that she had availed childcare leave for the children of her husband from his earlier marriage, the Bench observed that the predominant understanding of the concept of a “family” both in the law and society—that it consists of a single, unchanging unit with a mother and a father (who remain constant over time) and their children.
