Just two years after refusing to review its earlier judgment upholding validity of Section 377, criminalizing gay sex, the Supreme Court has now opened a last window of hope for India’s LGBT community by referring to a new bench curative petitions which legalises all forms of consensual sex between adults of same sex.
With the last set of curative petitions for preliminary hearing coming up, many members of the LGBT community are anxiously looking towards the three judges for a new glimmer of hope. The court hasn’t disappointed the many LGBT community members who gathered yesterday.
It did not issue any notices on the petitions but added that some important constitutional questions were raised, there is a hope that the right to privacy is also linked to right to life is sexual activity.
Senior Congress leader and also SC lawyer Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for the mother of an LGBT individual added that the SC judgment upholding the Section 377 which makes gay sex a criminal offence has again led to indignity and stigma on the present and future generations.
Sources say that many senior advocates -Sibal, Grover, K K Venugopal, Shyam Divan, C U Singh and Colin Gonsalves are appearing for the petitioners while Kerala-based Apostolic Churches Alliance and Muslim Personal Law Board have formally opposed this.
