Centre on ‘gay sex’

Centre on ‘gay sex’

New Delhi, July 11: The Central government on Wednesday said it was leaving it to the wisdom of the Supreme Court to decide if a law that criminalizes consensual gay sex was constitutionally valid. On the second day of the apex court hearing on the plea challenging the constitutional validity of Indian Penal Code’s Section 377 that criminalises homosexuality, the Centre did not spell out its stand one way or the other. A brief affidavit it filed said: “...so far as the constitutional validity Section 377 to the extent it applies to “consensual acts of adults in private” is concerned, the Union of India would leave the said question to the wisdom of this Court.” However, it urged the five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra that they should confine the hearing to deciding the challenge to the law without any scope that may give rise to LGBT community claiming civil rights including right to property, inheritance marriage, adoption and other rights.

Airing the government’s concerns, Mehta referred to Justice Chandrachud’s observation made during the course of the hearing on Tuesday that in Hadiya judgement, that “we have already decided that the right to choose partner is a fundamental right”. Clarifying his observation, Justice Chandrachud said they were not going to decide “kinky issues”. (IANS)

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com