LGBT couple Sun Wenlin and his partner appear before the case heard in Changsha, central China's Hunan province on April 13, 2016.

A court in central China's Hunan province on Wednesday ruled against a gay couple in China's first same-sex marriage case, citing China's marriage law, which stipulates that the subject of a marriage must be a man and a woman who meet the legal conditions of marriage.

This is the first case recorded in China's legal history where a same-sex couple is seeking the right to marry through legal means.

One of the men, surnamed Sun, and his partner went to the marriage registration office in Changsha City in central China's Hunan Province in June last year, but were rejected by the office staff who said the laws did not allow gay marriage.

The couple made a vain attempt to argue with the staff and then found an attorney to help them file a lawsuit against the civil affairs bureau of Changsha's Furong district on Dec 2015.

Considering the fact that both Sun and his partner are male, they do not meet the requirement of marriage registration in China and therefore their case is rejected, the court concluded after the hearing on Wednesday.

The case was supposed to go on trial in Jan 2016. However, the couple was informed two days before the previously set date that the date for the hearing was postponed to April 13.

(CRI contributed to this report)