"Familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships", the Supreme Court has observed, while noting that an ''atypical" manifestation of a family unit is as real as its traditional counterpart and deserves protection under the law.

The predominant understanding of the concept of a "family" both in the law and in society is that ''it consists of a single, unchanging unit with a mother and a father and their children.

PTI