The Karnataka High Court was told that excluding same-sex couples from the spouse benefit under the Income Tax Act amounts to discrimination on the ground of sex and violates Article 15.
A same-sex couple has asked the Karnataka High Court to read the word ‘spouse’ in the Income Tax Act’s gift-exemption provision to include them, after one partner’s gift of a gold-bracelet heirloom to the other was treated as taxable income. The Centre has opposed the plea, arguing that ‘spouse’ takes its meaning from a legally recognised marriage, that the classification rests on marital status rather than sexual orientation, and that recognising same-sex marriage was left by the Supreme Court to Parliament.
