Like many Indian parents, when Padma Iyer wanted to find a spouse for her son Harish Iyer, she decided to place an advert in the matrimonial sections of a few national newspapers.

But three of the four publications the Iyers approached, refused to run the advertisement, according to Iyer.

The ad read: “Seeking 25-40, well-placed, animal loving vegetarian groom, for my son (36, 5’11) who works with an NGO. Caste no bar. (Though Iyer Preferred).”

Padma was looking for a husband for her 36-year-old son, one of India’s most well-known gay rights activists.

The Times of India, Hindustan Times and DNA, did not carry the ad.

According to Iyer, DNA and the Times of India refused citing legal consequences, while Hindustan Times didn’t give a reason.

Uday Nirgudkar, DNA’s editor-in-chief, told India Real Time that his newspaper hadn’t refused to carry the ad but was seeking a legal opinion on the matter. “This is a sensitive issue, we have nothing against it at all,” Mr. Nirgudkar said.

India reintroduced a ban on gay sex in December 2013 and gay marriage is not recognized under Indian law.

Arunabh Das Sharma, president of Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd. publisher of the Times of India, said the newspaper believed in neutrality. ”We don’t take a stance against homosexuality at all. Homosexual marriage contravenes” Indian law, he said. “As a responsible media organization we cannot go against something that the supreme court has upheld,” Mr. Sharma said. “Marriage is linked to procreation,” he added.

The Hindustan Times didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Only Mid-Day, an English-language daily, ran the advertisement Tuesday. “As an organisation, we have always supported equal rights for everyone, regardless of religion, caste, sexual orientation, the colour of the skin, or whatever. Therefore, when the gay matrimony ad came to our office, we did not even think twice about publishing it,” said Sachin Kalbag, executive editor of Mid-Day, in an email.

Mr. Iyer said he was surprised by the decision of the other newspapers because they have extensively covered the issues relating to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in India in the past. “It could have set a precedent where loads and loads of LGBT people placed ads,” he said.

“It’s about a mother who wanted to place an ad for her son because her son was not finding a boy for himself,” said Mr. Iyer. “It is as simple as that,” he added.

But things aren’t that simple for homosexual people in India since the country’s Supreme Court overturned a landmarked 2009 ruling that had decriminalized homosexual acts. The top court in 2013 said it should be Parliament that legislates on such matters not the judiciary. Since then, anecdotally at least, cases of violence and discrimination against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people have gone up.

Gay marriage has never been recognized in India. It’s an equally controversial issue around the world and only a handful of countries recognize gay marriage including the Netherlands, Finland, Scotland and Canada. Mexico and the U.S. allow gay marriages in some jurisdictions.

It’s not unusual for newspapers to refuse advertisements relating to homosexuals, according to Ashok Row Kavi, a gay rights activist and founder of Bombay Dost, India’s first magazine aimed at gay people. “They say homosexuality is a crime and they don’t want to encourage it,” said Mr. Kavi, adding that he has faced similar situations in the past when he wanted to advertise Bombay Dost’s events in the newspapers.

As far as Mr. Iyer is concerned, he says he just wants a companion to spend time with — more so because he isn’t close to his father or his siblings, he says. “My life will have a vacuum after my mother [passes away] and my mother fears the same thing.”

Saptarishi Dutta is a freelance journalist based in Delhi. This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on May 20, 2015)