Hearing on de-criminalising Section 377 to continue today
New Delhi, July 10: The Supreme Court will continue hearing the petition challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code today. Under challenge is the criminalisation of gay sex, which the Supreme Court had decided to review.
Arguing for the petitioners, senior advocate, Mukul Rohatgi on Tuesday said that the SC must declare that the rights of the gay community is protected under Article 21. He said that being gay or lesbian is not a matter of choice. It is innate, inborn and actually has to do something with the genes.
Section 377 IPC uses order nature, but this is also an order of nature because nature gives you this, he said.
Meanwhile
additional
solicitor
general
Tushar
Mehta
told
the
court
that
the
government
would
file
its
response
today.
During
the
course
of
the
arguments
the
judges
discussed
how
this
issue
needs
to
be
addressed.
The
court
sought
to
know
whether
it
should
first
decide
on
the
constitutional
validity
of
Section
377
and
then
go
into
the
fundamental
rights
of
an
individual.
Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra said that the question is whether Section 377 is ultra vires or not. Let us get out of the maze first. We cannot give advance rulings to questions like inheritance to live-in partners, whether they can marry or not etc. These are individual issues and we cannot pre-judge a law, he also said.
Rohatgi
however
told
the
Bench
that
the
life
of
those
as
a
sexual
minority
needs
to
be
protected.
Do
not
restrict
the
hearing
to
just
Section
377.
Our
lives
are
passing
by
and
how
many
of
us
can
come
on
individual
issues
later,
he
also
said.
Five
from
the
lesbian,
gay,
bi-sexual,
transgender
and
queer
(LGBTQ)
community
had
sought
a
review
of
the
SC
decision.
They said that they live in fear of the police because of their natural sexual orientation and preferences.
In 2013, a three judge Bench had upheld the validity of Section 377, which criminalises gay sex. After this was challenged in a review, the matter was referred to a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.