India’s Supreme Court refused to legalise same-sex marriages but said the country had a duty to acknowledge LGBTQ relationships and to protect them from discrimination.

Earlier this year, five-judge constitutional bench — set up to consider important questions of law — began hearing submissions seeking the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

Nearly two dozen petitioners’ attorneys argued that India should treat the LGBTQ community as full constitutional citizens.

But their verdict said that the charter did not guarantee a fundamental right to marry that would extend to same-sex couples under existing law.

The Supreme Court Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said, “It lies within the domain of parliament and state legislatures to determine the law on marriage.”

He noted that India still had a duty to acknowledge same-sex relationships and protect those in them from discrimination.

“Our ability to feel love and affection for one another makes us feel human,” he said from the bench.

“This court has recognised that equality demands that queer unions and queer persons are not discriminated against.”

The judgment however, didn’t set well with those who had gathered outside the court in the hopes of celebrating India becoming the second Asian jurisdiction outside Taiwan to legalise same-sex marriages.

“We are not satisfied with whatever the court has said”, Siddhant Kumar, 27, told AFP.

“This has been going on for years, we have been struggling for legal recognition,” he added. “We have to remain strong and continue our fight.”