India, Nov. 14 -- The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to grant interim relief to a same-sex couple who have moved the court to challenge the constitutional validity of section 56(2)(x) of the Income-Tax Act, the provision that exempts gifts exchanged between spouses, but only within heterosexual marriages. The petitioners say the exclusion leaves same-sex partners economically penalised for the very exchange that married couples take for granted: a gift between life partners that, if valued above Rs.50,000, is treated as taxable "income from other sources."

A division bench of justices Burgess Colabawalla and Amit Jamsandekar heard brief submissions from petitioners Payio Ashiho and Vivek Divan, who argue that the statute's protect...