Hong Kong’s top court ruled on Tuesday that the government has a constitutional duty to allow gay couples to register their partnerships, although it stopped short of granting full marriage rights.

The case was brought by activist Jimmy Sham, who married his male partner in New York in 2013.

The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) rejected Sham’s argument that gay couples have a right to marriage under Article 25 of the Basic Law and Article 22 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, ruling that such unions are only for heterosexuals.

Sham also unsuccessfully argued that the same two articles were violated by Hong Kong’s failure to recognise same-sex marriages carried out abroad.

But the CFA agreed with his assertion that the government's failure to provide an alternative means of legal recognition for same-sex partnerships is a violation of privacy under Article 14 of the Bill of Rights.

Same-sex couples must have "access to an alternative framework conferring legal recognition on their relationship in order to meet basic social requirements and to provide them with a sense of legitimacy, dispelling any sense that they belong to an inferior class of persons whose relationship is undeserving of recognition," the judgment said.

The government will be given two years to comply once the court issues a final order on the matter.

Sham, who began his legal challenge in 2018, is on remand over an alleged national security offence.