The Indian government has urged state governments to submit their views on same-sex marriage in the country within ten days. The move came during the second day of a court hearing regarding marriage equality in India. Although the Supreme Court previously decreed that the historic 158-year-old ban on gay sex was "indefensible", the government contends that marriage is an “exclusively heterogeneous institution” and, if disrupted, would cause “complete havoc” within India’s deeply religious society. Same-sex couples require “a language” to assert their relationships as being equal to their straight counterparts, according to Menaka Guruswamy, a senior lawyer representing petitioners in the current case.