Fact-Check: Supreme Court Did Not Allow Same-Sex Couples To Adopt Children

The Supreme Court stated that same-sex couples would NOT be allowed to adopt children.

Social media users shared misleading posts which claimed that the Supreme Court has allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Shortly after the Supreme Court announced its verdict on the marriage equality case, social media users shared posts where they spoke about how even though same-sex marriage was not going to be legally recognised, the verdict now allowed same-sex couples to adopt a child.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

(Archives of more claims on social media platforms can be seen here, here and here.)

But…?: The viral claim is false. The Supreme Court has upheld the Central Adoption Resource Authority’s (CARA) regulations, which does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children.

What did the Supreme Court say in its verdict?: The five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, and PS Narasimha, unanimously agreed that transgender persons had a right to marry and that same-sex couples did not have a right to marriage, as there is “no fundamental right to marriage.”

• The minority opinion, by the CJI and Justice Kaul, held that same-sex couples had the right to civil union and the right to adopt children.

• However, the majority opinion, involving Justices Bhat, Kohli and Narasimha, stated that the right to civil union for same-sex couples was not valid and that the couples could not be given the right to adopt children, upholding CARA’s regulations.

• The same was also highlighted by Live Law in their X posts regarding the hearing.

The Supreme Court upheld CARA's regulations which prohibit unmarried couples from adopting children.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

• One can listen to Justice Bhat speaking about disagreeing to allow adoption by same-sex couples here.

Conclusion: Social media users have shared posts to falsely claim that the Supreme Court has allowed same-sex couples to adopt children in their verdict in the marriage equality case.

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