As Section 377 is read down today, we must not forget that ABVA filed the first writ petition to challenge the constitutional validity of Section 377 before Delhi High Court. The petition was dismissed in 1999 for non-prosecution just before Naz Foundation filed its petition in 2001.. On July 2, 2009 the Delhi High Court pronounced its historic judgment by declaring Section 377 unconstitutional, but it was overturned on December 11, 2013 by the Supreme Court on appeals filed by religious and cultural organisations. Today, the Supreme Court course-corrected again.
Adhering to the true spirit of the Constitution and the NALSA judgment, Shanavi should be entitled to self-determine her gender and should also be able to avail the benefits of the affirmative actions. The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation dismissing her letter on the grounds that it is only open for “women” is going against the value of the judgment.
While the Supreme Court will to decrimnalise consensual same-sex relationships is pretty clear to many, there are important issues to address, such as formulating anti-discrimination laws for private sector, making rape laws gender neutral to incorporate homosexual consensual sex acts, as well as move to recognize same-sex marriage.
Alka Lamba has been criticised on social media for stereotyping the trans community by calling them "beech wale" who clap loudly ("thaali peetna"). Despite being called out on Twitter for her transphobic remarks, she has neither pulled down her tweet, nor has apologised for it.
WSS statement points to the diverse forms of discrimination faced by the community, aggravated by the class and caste hierarchies. Members of transgender community have been historically deprived of their legitimate natural and constitutional rights.
The five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra is hearing a batch of petitions challenging section 377 of IPC which criminalises and penalises what it terms an “unnatural offence”, insofar as provision adversely affect consensual relations between adults.
The petitioners have heavily relied on the elaborate enunciation of privacy, autonomy, and dignity that protects the intimate relations of individuals in the privacy judgment delivered last year, along with the 2014 SC judgment in transgender rights.
The aim of punishment is reformative, otherwise everyone would get the death sentence for the smallest of crimes. The reformatory theory of punishment is one that acknowledges the guilt of society in creating a criminal.
Indicative of a far more liberal, advanced and nuanced understanding of issues pertaining to sexuality as compared to 2013, the Court, through the conduct of its officers on both sides of the bench, has displayed a departure from the primitive and regressive understanding of homosexuality being a disease or a medical disorder.
'Prosecution of cases u/S377 increased and in particular blackmail and extorting became frequent. We get a lot of clients who are threatened with blackmail but cannot do anything because they are afraid of reporting to the police about that, lest they would be arrested under S377. This infringes their right to access justice.'
The five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra is hearing a batch of petitions challenging section 377 of IPC which criminalises and penalises what it terms an “unnatural offence”, insofar as provision adversely affect consensual relations between adults.
In this video, we speak to Chayanika Shah, who talks about her life experiences as a queer woman in India and living with the hope of seeing Section 377 struck off from the rule books.
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