New Delhi: The US is closely “monitoring follow-up steps” from the Indian government after the Supreme Court declined to legalise same-sex marriage, the US State Department said on Thursday.“The United States supports marriage equality globally,” a US State Department spokesperson said, according to Reuters. “We are closely monitoring follow-up steps from the government and reactions from civil society on this issue following the court’s ruling.”It has further encouraged India to work towards offering equal legal protection to same-sex couples, the report added.In its 2:5 judgment, the apex court declined to legalise same-sex marriage and left it to the parliament to decide on this matter.n its petitions to the top court, the Union government had opposed same-sex marriages. It had argued that the institution of marriage is “exclusively heterogenous” and those seeking same-sex marriages represent “urban elitist views for the purpose of social acceptance”.It had said that same-sex marriage is not “comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children”.However, while delivering the judgment, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud noted: “Queerness is not urban or elite.”“It is not an English speaking man with a white collar man who can claim to be queer but equally a woman working in an agricultural job in a village,” he said. “…Queerness can be regardless of one’s caste or class or socio-economic status.”Previous US State Department reports have raised concerns over treatment of religious minorities, journalists, and dissidents in India. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declined that any such discrimination exists in India.