Milli Council, JuH criticise SC decision on Section 377; Christian organisations opposed in SC

New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court partially struck down Section 377 on Thursday. The 158-year-old British-era law had the provision of punishment for consensual gay sex between adults.

However in over 158 year old history of this law just one conviction took place that to way back in 1935. The court has declared that an individual's sexual orientation is a matter of privacy and also an essential facet of one's dignity.

Interestingly it was supported by the RSS that it should not be criminalise, when Arun Kumar, Akhil Bhartiya Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, said, "Like the Supreme Court, we also do not consider this to be a crime. The same sex marriages are not compatible with norms of the Nature, so we do not support such relations. Bharatiya Society also doesn't have the tradition to recognize such relations."

This petition was opposed by three Christian organisations - the Apostolic Alliance of Churches, Utkal Christian Council and Trust God Ministries organisation. However, All India Milli Council came down heavily on the government against it. General secretary of All India Milli Council Maulana M Manzoor Alam told One India that all this has been done by the government at the behest of the RSS as it wants to give a message to the world of being liberal not radical. They want to become liberal on such issues while they become communal when it comes of education and knowledge.

The Milli Council Leader said that courts just look at the legal aspect however there are social, cultural, religious, civilisational and many other aspect in the society. This will lead to the degeneration of the society at large. Copying to the west is not always good.

Besides the Milli Council, Jamiat Ulama e Hind general secretary Mehmood Madni too opposed scrapping of Section 377 by the Supreme Court. The Congress Lok Sabha member from the Kisanganj Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar Mohammad Asrarul Haque Qasmi also opposed this judgment of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community too possesses the same human, fundamental and constitutional rights as other citizens, It's no longer a crime to be a homosexual in India. The SC bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that Section 377 was arbitrary and unconstitutional to the extent that it punishes consensual intercourse between adults irrespective of their gender identity or sexual orientation.