The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises consensual gay sex between two adults as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”.
A five-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra directed all the counsels to submit written submissions in support of their arguments by July 20 this year. The verdict is likely to be announced before CJI Misra’s retirement on October 2 this year.
Earlier, two days after the Centre’s plea to postpone the proceedings was rejected by the apex court, the Centre last Wednesday put the onus on the top court to decide whether to go ahead with Section 377 or to scrap it.
On Thursday. the apex court said that the court would resort to constitutional morality and would not go by the majority opinion. The court further said decriminalisation of consensual gay sex would abolish the social stigma and discrimination the community has to face.
On July 2, 2009, saying Section 377 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.
