26.4.14

SC: Open hearing on Section 377

The Supreme Court gave one last opportunity to the LGBT community to convince it about the correctness of the Delhi high court verdict allowing gay sex in private between consenting adults.
A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice R M Lodha, Justice H L Dattu and Justice S J Mukhopadhaya agreed to hear arguments from the LGBT community in open court next week after deciding to entertain their curative petition, which is the last available option for overturning a verdict.
On December 11 last year, a bench of Justice G S Singhvi and Justice Mukhopadhaya had upheld the validity of Section 377 of IPC, which criminalized gay sex
After Justice Singhvi’s retirement, a bench of Justice Dattu and Justice Mukhopadhaya had dismissed petitions filed by the Centre and NGOs including Naz Foundation seeking review of the judgment.
The Centre had taken a refreshingly bold view in its review petition, when it said, “Even in India, Section 377 was introduced not as a reflection of existing Indian values, but rather, it was imposed upon Indian society due to the moral values of the colonizers. Indian society prior to enactment of IPC had much greater tolerance towards homosexuality.
The curative petition will be heard next week, by when Chief Justice Sathasivam would have retired and Justice Lodha would have taken charge as the new CJI.

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