The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a ray of hope to gay rights’ activists by agreeing to hear in open court the curative petitions filed by gay rights groups and individuals supporting their cause demanding de-criminalisation of same-sex relationships, and gay sex, under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
An earlier judgement of the apex court on December 11, 2013 upheld the validity of IPC Section 377 which punishes unnatural sex, including sex between consenting adults in private. With the apex court dismissing the review petitions filed earlier by the gay rights groups spearheaded by Naz Foundation, curative petition was the last judicial remedy available to challenge the SC decision.
A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam on Tuesday took up the matters and decided to hear it in open court next week. Besides Naz Foundation, other persons including noted film director Shyam Benegal had challenged the apex court’s verdict. “list in the court next week,” said the order passed by a bench of the CJI, Justices RM lodha, Hl Dattu and SJ Mukhopadhaya.
The petitioners who advocated the cause of lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (lGBT) community, contended there was error in the SC judgement as it was based on old law. The Supreme Court had on December 11, 2013 reversed a Delhi High Court judgement that de-criminalised gay sex. By doing so, the court threw the ball in Parliament’s court to amend the law as the Centre had indicated to the court that without amendment, an exception could be added to Section 377 exempting sex between consenting adults in private.
The verdict was seen as an affront to sexual orientation of homosexuals. But with the recent verdict by the apex court recognising sexual orientation of transgenders being the official third sex, gay rights groups had demanded apex court for a relook on Section 377.