Gay Sex Order by the Supreme Court

The filing of a review petition against the Supreme Court order re criminalizing gay sex between adults with the law ministry receiving attorney general GE Vahanvati’s opinion is set to put out. On December of 2011 the apex court had set aside a 2009 Delhi high court order which had decriminalized same sex relationships.

Law minister Kapil Sibal earlier commented that the government was out of opitions and had to change the law and was considering all options to restore the HC verdict on Section 377of the IPC.

The minister said that “we must decriminalize adult consensual relationships,” after his party leadership had taken a similar stand which was seeking to challenge the SC verdict. The Congress President Sonia Gandhi had said the HC judgment was right and went well with the inclusive culture of the country. Kapil Sibal clarified that the options which were laid out before the government consisted of including filing a review petition before a larger bench of the apex court. He had ruled out any legislative initiative as that would be explored only if the judicial review was unsuccessful.

The SC had upheld the legality of Section 377 of the IPC which provides for imprisonment up to life term. The case was first filed in 2001 by an NGO Naz Foundation in the Delhi HC which sought decriminalizing gay sex among consenting adults. The HC had first dismissed the petition in 2004 but after the petitioner approached the apex court and the SC directed the HC to reconsider the matter on merit in 2009, it decriminalized gay sex, partially striking down Section 377.

 Denisha Sahadevan