The Urban Elite v. Union of India: The Unfulfilled Constitutional Promise of Marriage (In)Equality

What does it mean to be a queer lawyer? How should social impact and public interest legislation be undertaken? Is the legal profession a safe space for queer lawyers? What goes through the mind of a queer lawyer when homophobia is masqueraded as a legal argument?

Rohin Bhatt was studying law at the Gujarat National Law University when the Supreme Court gave its landmark judgment in Navtej Singh Johar & Ors. v. Union of India. The apex court was asked to determine the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era law which, among other things, criminalized homosexual acts as an ‘unnatural offence’. The verdict changed the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community in India, with activists and lawyers outside the court cheering as the news broke. But five years later, little has changed on the ground.
The Urban Elite versus Union of India is a first-of-its-kind book on queer rights not just of the courtroom, but of the author’s own life. In this book, they present the legal history of the fight for the decriminalization of Section 377, the arguments of the petitioners pushing for their right to marry (and the vicious opposition) and to have families of their own, as well as a story from the frontlines of litigating queer rights by a queer person that presents their own perspective of what it is like to be both personally and professionally involved in a case that had the potential to change the social fabric of this country forever.