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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SC order leaves door open for LGBTs -Dhananjay Mahapatra

SC order leaves door open for LGBTs -Dhananjay Mahapatra

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published Published on Dec 20, 2013   modified Modified on Dec 20, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: There is some hope for the LGBT community in the recent Supreme Court judgment despite it spreading gloom among them by upholding the validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

While it closed the small window opened by the Delhi High Court legalizing consensual gay sex between adults in private, it took a panoramic view of Indian case law on Section 377 and concluded that courts have punished only non-consensual and coercive carnal intercourse against the order of nature.

After discussing a fact-sheet of cases in 10 court judgments in the last 88 years, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya had said, "All the aforementioned cases refer to non-consensual and markedly coercive situations and the keenness of the court in bringing justice to the victims who were either women or children cannot be discounted while analyzing the manner in which the section has been interpreted."

Justice Singhvi, who authored the judgment, appeared to stress on the situations in which Section 377 was applied in the past by the prosecution and the manner in which courts had dealt with it. He said the courts had punished the perpetrators under Section 377 for forcing anal intercourse or oral sex on women or children.

What would be a court's approach if police books two consenting adults for indulging in gay sex in private? Would it still punish them under Section 377?

Justices Singhvi and Mukhopadhaya said, "We are apprehensive whether the court would rule similarly (as in the 10 cases of the high courts) in case of a proved consensual intercourse between adults."

After indicating what could be the approach of courts in cases involving consensual gay sex, the bench said it would be difficult to prepare a list of sexual acts that would fall foul of Section 377 and those which would not. But at the same time, it clarified that Section 377 by itself did not suffer from constitutional infirmity.

"Notwithstanding this verdict, the competent legislature shall be free to consider the desirability and propriety of deleting Section 377 IPC from the statute book or amend the same as per the suggestion made by the attorney general," the bench said.

Attorney general G E Vahanvati had told the apex court during the arguments that the Delhi HC verdict would not result in deletion of Section 377 from IPC.

"But a proviso would have to be added to clarify that nothing contained therein shall apply to any sexual activity between two consenting adults in private," the AG had said, expressing the government's intent.

The court clarified the judiciary's approach towards consensual gay sex between adults, upheld the constitutional validity of Section 377 and said the legislature was free to delete or limit operation of Section 377.


The Times of India, 20 December, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-order-leaves-door-open-for-LGBTs/articleshow/27668428.cms


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