ME NEWS BUREAU: The Supreme Court offered a ray of hope for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community as the top court decided to revisit its 2013 verdict, criminalizing the consensual gay sex.
The Supreme Court also indicated that the issue will be referred to the larger bench to hear the validity of the IPC section 377.
Earlier in 2013, the Supreme Court had overturned the Delhi HC’s 2009 verdict that decriminalized the section 377 and allowing legal permission for the consensual sex relationships between the adults of the same gender.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said that “ a section of people or individuals who exercise their choice should never remain in a state of fear”.
“Restrictions on individual’s autonomy and choice by a law must be in conformity with constitutional morality”, the SC said.
The SC also added that “what is natural to one may not be natural to another”.
The LGBTQ community had dealt a huge blow when they received the 2013 verdict, dashing hopes on their voice to live according to each individual’s right, attended an array of protests and demonstrations against the ruling.
Section 377 deals with “unnatural offences” and stipulates that “whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature of any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine”.
