22.3.17

Kerala to be a trendsetter in promoting gay rights?

In a major step to include LGBT community into the mainstream, the Kerala state government is mulling on bringing in an amendment to Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalizes homosexuality .
Law Secretary B G Harindranath said that he has drafted the bill on amending Section 377 which will be introduced in the assembly. He added that even if the state brings in the amendment, it has to receive the presidential assent.

As the law falls under the concurrent list in the Constitution, the state can bring in an amendment to it. After his two attempts to introduce a private member bill in the Lok Sabha were defeated, Shashi Tharoor had recently requested the state government to consider amending the bill in the state assembly.

Tharoor, in a recent letter to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, had requested him to look into the possibility of introducing it in state assembly “so that state an once again lead the nation and set new standards, correcting a historical wrong of Victorian vintage and lighting the path for other states and the national as a whole to live up to the values enshrined in the Constitution'. 

No comments: