The High Court on Wednesday ruled that the Housing Authority’s policy of excluding same-sex couples who have married abroad from applying for public rental housing as an "ordinary family" is unlawful and unconstitutional.

The case was brought by Nick Infinger, a Hong Kong permanent resident who married his male partner, also a permanent resident, in Canada in 2018.

When Infinger later applied for public housing as an "ordinary family", the Housing Authority rejected the application, telling him that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "husband" means "a married man especially in relation to his wife".

In a judicial review of the authority's decision, Infinger's lawyer argued that those applying for a public flat as a "non-elderly single person" have to wait many more years to be given a home than those who apply through the "ordinary families" category. The authority's lawyer, meanwhile, argued that it has to set specific criteria for applicants due to the limited supply of flats available.

The authority also aimed to support existing "traditional families", and to prioritise the institution of a traditional family by protecting the supply of public rental housing, the lawyer said. But Judge Anderson Chow found that failing to class same-sex married couples as "ordinary families" violates Basic Law Article 25, which says Hong Kong residents shall be equal before the law, and Article 22 of the Bill of Rights, which states that everyone is entitled to equal protection against discrimination on any grounds.