Homosexual couples can make as good or bad parents as heterosexual ones, a child rights body has told the Supreme Court days before a constitution bench begins hearing a batch of petitions seeking the legalisation of same-sex marriages in India.

“From a psychological point of view, multiple studies on same-sex parenting have demonstrated that same-sex couples can be good parents, or not, in the same manner that heterosexual parents can be good parents or not,” the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) said in an intervention application.

The DCPCR said its application was necessary as same-sex couples’ right to marry may be deemed to be linked to, and have a bearing on, their right to adopt children and start a family. Currently, Indian laws do not allow same-sex couples (necessarily unmarried) to adopt children while allowing individual adults, irrespective of sexual orientation, to do so.

The child rights monitor said international studies had shown that the children of same-sex parents suffered from no psychological deficiencies and, instead, tended to do slightly better academically than those of heterosexual parents.

The application, moved on behalf of DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu through advocate-on-record Abhishek Manchanda, said that 30-odd countries had legalised same-sex marriages through legislation or court decisions since the Netherlands did so in the year 2000.

It said that more than 50 countries allowed same-sex couples to legally adopt children, including Israel and Lebanon in Asia, 22 European nations and 16 American countries.

“There is no evidence or empirical data to show that same-sex couples are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of same-sex couples is compromised relative to that among offspring of heterosexual parents,” the child rights body said.

“A study on same-sex parents and their children titled ‘Lesbian & Gay Parenting’ by the American Psychological Association concluded that home environments provided by same-sex parents are no different from those provided by heterosexual parents, to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth.”

It said that a 2020 study, published in the American Sociological Review, analysed the academic outcomes of children raised by same-sex parents based on data derived from the Netherlands and found that:

■ Children raised by same-sex parents from birth outperformed children with heterosexual parents by a standard deviation of 0.139 on academic tests.

■ Children raised by same-sex parents from birth were 4.8 percentage points likelier to graduate than children with different-sex parents.

■ Given the time-consuming and costly procedures for same-sex couples to obtain children, same-sex parents typically had higher socioeconomic status, resulting in better academic outcomes for their children.

Gender-neutral laws

Rebutting the Centre’s contention that legalising same-sex marriages would involve amendments to a host of laws relating to marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance, the DCPCR said that it would be enough to just reinterpret the existing laws in a gender-neutral way.

The constitution bench will begin hearing the matter from April 18.