Kolkata, April 20 (PTI) Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday came out in favour of same-sex marriage and said everyone has the right to choose their life partner and blamed the Centre for dillydallying the issue.

The state cannot discriminate against an individual on the basis of sexual characteristics over which the person has no control, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, asserting the Centre has no data to back up its claim that the concept of same-sex marriage is "elitist" or "urban".

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The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking legal sanction for same-sex marriage. The Centre, in one of its affidavits filed in the apex court, termed the petitions a reflection of an "urban elitist" view for the purpose of social acceptance and said recognition of marriage is essentially a legislative function which the courts should refrain from adjudicating on.

"The matter is sub judice. So I would not like to comment on it. But I feel that love has no religion, caste or creed. Everybody has the right to choose their respective life partner be it a man or a woman," he said.

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When asked to react to the Centre filing an affidavit urging all states and union parties to be made parties to the proceedings to seek their opinion, the TMC national general secretary accused the Centre of trying to dilly-dallying on the matter.

"The Centre is deliberately delaying the matter. This tactic keeps the matter dangling for no reason. They could have done that in the last seven years if they were serious about seeking an opinion. They want to dilly-dally on the matter for no reason," he said. At the start of the day's hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, filed a fresh affidavit urging the bench that all states and Union Territories be made parties to the proceedings as any decision on the issue without obtaining their views will render the present "adversarial exercise" incomplete and truncated.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)