Hrishi Mohankumar Sathawane and his gay partner Vinh got married just before New Year
An engineer from India who lives in the US married his Vietnamese gay partner at a grand ceremony in Maharastra's Yavatmal, 670 kilometres from Mumbai, just in time to ring in the New Year with more celebrations.
Hrishi Mohankumar Sathawane, 40, got married to his partner Vinh, who is from Vietnam, in a traditional ceremony organised at a local hotel on December 30. People familiar with the matter said his family supported his decision to marry his Vietnamese gay partner.
Sathawane is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and lives in California.
He posted on Facebook that earlier his parents did not seem to approve of his sexual orientation, but he eventually convinced them that it was okay to get married to his partner.
The hotel where the wedding ceremony was held was not very far away from the police station.
On January 8, the Supreme Court said that whether homosexuality should be a crime in India will be re-examined by it. In 2013, it had restored a controversial British-era ban on gay sex.
No one should have to live in fear because of their sexuality, said three Supreme Court judges including Chief Justice Dipak Misra, asking a larger group of judges to review Section 377, the 1861 law that criminalises sexual activities "against the order of nature".
Responding to a legal challenge by five high-profile petitioners who say they are living in fear of being punished, the judges said: "What is natural to one may not be natural to others."