LGBT community across the nation celebrates Section 377 verdict

New Delhi, Sep 6: Celebrations began across the nation on Thursday after a five-judge SC bench by unanimous decision decriminalised Section 377 making gay sex legal.

Soon after the verdict on Section 377, LGBT rights and hotelier Kehsav Suri has said that he is no more an 'illegal'. Celebratons are on at Delhi's Lalit Hotel after the verdict.

CJI Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar pronounce the first judgment saying consensual sexual relation between same gender adults in private does not fall foul of section 377 IPC.

The high court had decriminalised consensual gay sex in 2009 but the top court had cancelled the order four years later, ruling that only parliament should be changing laws.

In 2016, the Supreme Court, however, agreed to hear a petition by five prominent members of the LGBT, or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community Bharatnatyam dancer Navtej Johar, culture expert Aman Nath, restaurateurs Ritu Dalmia and Ayesha Kapur and mediaperson Sunil Mehra, challenging the constitutionality of section 377.