A day after rejecting the Centre’s plea to postpone the proceedings, the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday started hearing petitions challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises consensual gay sex between two adults as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”.
Challenging the existing 377 Section, the plea said such a law is against the fundamental rights of the Constitution and it cannot be criminalised on the basis of societal perception.
A new five-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra is hearing the petitions.The apex court said it would consider if the sexual freedom comes under right to life.
Earlier on July 2, 2009, saying the 377 section violates the fundamental rights, the Delhi High Court had legalised consensual homosexual intercourse. But on December 11, 2013, the apex court revoked the high court’s verdict along with dismissing the review petitions. Later, on February 2, 2016, the apex court allowed to file curative pleas before a five-judge division bench.
On August 24, 2017, the apex court regarded sexual orientation as “an attribute of privacy” before agreeing to reconsider its 2013 decision on January this year.
