HIGH COURT GIVES HISTORIC JUDGEMENT
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Legally gay: historic court order makes it possible
Published on Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 11:00, Updated on Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 19:52 in India section
Tags: Gay Rights, Delhi High Court , New Delhi
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Section 377, a relic of the British Raj, relates to "unnatural offences" and says that "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal should be punished".
Chief Justice Shah and Justice Muralidhar said, "We declare Section 377 in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private is violative of articles 14, 21 and 15 of the Constitution. The provision of Section 377 will continue to govern non-consensual penile non-vaginal sex and penile non vaginal sex involving minors."
They said this judgement will hold till Parliament chooses to amend the law.
The court also ruled that the Law Commission's report recommending gay sex to be legalised should be kept in mind by Parliament.
From now on, police will no longer be able to arrest adult gays having consensual sex.
Anjali Gopalan of the Naz Foundation said, "We had asked that Section 377 be read down. This, however, does not hold good for minors below 18. Also, the fact that adults have to be consenting is important. It is celebration time for us. We have waited for years for this day."
"I am very emotional at the moment. We have been struggling for this for 30 years. I didn't expect to see this in my lifetime. Now we can move forward to get laws for safety , security in marriage, jobs, etc for the gay community," said Gay rights activist Sunil Gupta.
In 2004, the Delhi High Court dismissed a similar petition, calling it an academic challenge to the constitutionality of a legislative provision which could not be entertained.
Last year, the Central Government had submitted that gay sex was immoral and reflective of a perverse mind and warned its de-criminalisation would lead to moral degradation in society.
"Every citizen has the right to lead a decent and moral life in society and the right would be violated if such behaviour (gay sex) is legalised," the Government contended.
It remains to be seen whether the Central Government will appeal against the latest order in the Supreme Court.
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What is ethics and who are its custodians?
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where is India heading to?The culture has been changed.The supreme court should not have accepted gays to be legal.what is
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so there\'s every possibility to expect an attack on a straight guy from a gay????{according to your findings?}
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A nonsense law, a nonsense judgement, and a nonsense debate.
All kind of Sex, including gay and
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There still exists a big question which is debatable whether Article 21 has been infringed or not.The prostitution is also
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