A Canadian World Bank official is in the middle of an international gay rights battle in India over the acceptance of his same-sex partner.
India’s laws don’t recognise a man’s marriage if his ‘wife’ happens to be a man and this has put Charles Cormier, a gay World Bank official in a quandary.
His partner has not been allowed to enter India on the grounds that there is no category of visa for same sex partners in Indian law.
Cormier’s partner identified by local media as ‘Mr Warwick’ had been in India but was not allowed back in recently after leaving the country.
Now the matter is being taken up by the World Bank and Canadian officials who are trying to persuade India to allow Cormier’s partner to live with him.
The vice president of the World Bank in charge of South Asia, Isabel Guerrero, has written to the Indian government asking for some consideration for her colleague, Indian media reported.
In a letter, Guerrero asked the Indian government to favourably consider the case of Cormier, who has been legally married to his same sex spouse since 2006 under Canadian law which recognises same sex marriages.
“This new requirement is impossible to manage for this diplomatic household, as irregular and frequent travel is required. What would be the best way to secure Mr. Warwick with a multiple entry visa appropriate with his status as a domestic partner of an international staffer?, she asks in her letter to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Though the home ministry has the final say in such matters, the MEA liaises with the ministry on behalf of foreign diplomatic staff, local media said, adding no one in the MEA was willing to comment on this sensitive issue.
Privately, officials were quoted as saying that such issues have cropped up before. “According to our laws, there is no same sex partner. So the best option is a tourist visa,” said an official who did not wish to be identified.
Part of the problem is also due to the fact that India has changed its visa rules following the arrest of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba recruit from Chicago, David Coleman Headley, for his role in scouting through India ahead of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Indian commentators have recently voiced outrage that US prosecutors reached a plea deal with Headley, who travelled in and out of India and surveyed targets in Mumbai before the siege that left 166 people dead.
Under the deal, Headley -- the US-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and an American woman -- agreed to cooperate with US investigators in return for avoiding the death penalty and extradition to India.
The new regulations laid down as a result of Headley’s surveillance states that a tourist cannot return to the country within two months of his last visit.
Many countries, including the US and Britain, have protested against the new regulations, as it causes tourists who travel through South Asia with India as a base a lot of problems. In case of partners who are here on tourist visas, they become even more acute.
Cormier has been a member of the core team of experts at the World Bank Carbon Finance Business since 2001, and was appointed Team Leader of Stakeholder Relations and Capacity Building in 2004.
As part of his functions, Cormier manages the Bank’s Carbon Finance Assist Program, which is a capacity building and technical assistance program whose mission is to enable developing countries and economies in transition to fully access the carbon market.
 Cormier’s mandate also calls on him to build and maintain excellent relations with key stakeholders through full awareness and support for the Bank’s vision, strategy and role in carbon market development.
Cormier’s case comes after The Delhi High Court issued a landmark ruling last year decriminalizing homosexuality, a move many expect  could bring more freedom to millions of people in conservative India.
The ruling said that treating relations between consenting adult homosexuals as a crime is a violation of basic human rights safeguarded under the Indian Constitution.