Nepal registered the country’s first same-sex marriage in Lamjung on Wednesday.

According to Dordi Rural Municipality Chairman Yuvaraj Adhikari, the marriage was registered at the ward 2 office of the rural municipality between Surendra Pandey, aged 27, of Kawasoti Municipality-8 in Nawalparasi East, and 37-year-old Ram Bahadur Gurung, who goes by the name Maya, of Dordi Rural Municipality-2 in Lamjung.

Surendra and Maya registered their marriage five years after getting married at a temple, according to Maya.

The couple met some nine years ago in Kawasoti. “We met in a restaurant and immediately liked each other. After a couple of weeks of courtship, we moved in together,” said Maya. “But our family and society did not accept us. We then moved to Kathmandu. Although we got married in a temple five years ago, our marriage was not legally recognised.”

According to Adhikari, the ward office forwarded the application to the rural municipality office after the same-sex couple registered the application at the ward office a week ago seeking legal registration. The same-sex marriage has been registered at the ward office in coordination with the rural municipality, said Adhikari.

In coordination with the rural municipality, the couple then applied at the Department of National ID and Civil Registration for legal recognition of their marriage. “Their marriage has been registered at the ward office after the Department of National ID and Civil Registration instructed it to register the marriage in the temporary record as per the Supreme Court’s interim order until the formulation of a law,” said Adhikari.

The Supreme Court in a landmark ruling on June 27 had ordered the government to register marriages involving same-sex and non-heterosexual couples, making Nepal the first South Asian country to do so. In 2019, Taiwan became first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.

A single bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha issued an interim order to the government based on various constitutional provisions that ensure the equality of every individual before the law. Responding to a writ petition from rights activists and advocates, the court also issued a show cause notice to the government demanding a written clarification about the legal instruments on same sex marriage.

In 2015, the Supreme Court issued a directive to revise or scrap all discriminatory laws against sexual and gender minorities and formulate laws for same sex marriage after a study. Although the study report, which recommended allowing all forms of marriage, was submitted to the government in 2015, successive governments took no step to frame the law. Instead, the Civil Code remained in force with all its discriminatory provisions. It acknowledges marriage as when a man and a woman accept each other as husband and wife.

In December last year, the Supreme Court had directed the government to grant a non-tourist visa to Tobias Volz, a German national who was married to Adheep Pokharel, a Nepali citizen. The gay couple had married in 2018 in Germany. The government had refused to provide a non-tourist visa to Volz, saying it did not recognise their marriage. Intervening in the matter, the court directed the government to grant Volz a non-tourist visa.

In 2017, a lesbian couple—Suman Panta, a Nepali, and Leslie Luin Melnik, a US citizen—had also challenged Nepal government’s decision to deny a non-tourist visa to the American. The court had said, “If a foreign national claiming to be married to a Nepali citizen submits a marriage registration certificate and the Nepali citizen confirms the marriage in their visa application, then the foreign national should not be denied a visa.”

Sunil Babu Pant, a gender rights activist who has been advocating for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, said that the marriage between Surendra and Maya is the first same-sex marriage to be registered in Nepal. “This marriage registration is a milestone and will be marked as a historic day for LGBTQIA+ rights in the country,” he said.

“This is a result of 23 years long battle for the community’s rights and the recognition of same-sex marriage in the country. We had submitted an application a week ago for the marriage registration of the couple Maya and Surendra. I thank the local unit supporting same-sex marriages.”

Maya is also the president of a social organisation called ‘Maya ko Pahichan Nepal’ that works for the rights of sexual and gender minorities.

“Our organisation helps LGBTQIA+ people who have been shunned by society as well as by their families,” said Maya. “We work to ensure the community’s rights in the country.”

Ganesh Bahadur Khatri, chairman of ward 2 of Dordi Rural Municipality, said that Maya and Surendra were the first same-sex couple to approach the ward office to legalise their marriage. “We were surprised at first when they submitted their application. We examined the application and asked them to come back with required documents. When they came back, the marriage was legally registered,” said Khatri. “This not only the first case of registration of same sex marriage not only in Nepal but probably in the whole of South Asia.” 

The title of this news report has been modified for clarity.