Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Centre has washed it hands off the debate on Section 377, leaving it to the Supreme Court to decide on Delhi High Court's decision to legalise homosexuality.
A Cabinet note says the Centre will not oppose the Delhi High Court judgement.
"The correctness of the Delhi High Court judgement has been challenged in an appeal before the Supreme Court. The Government may submit before the Supreme Court that there does not appear to be any legal error in the judgement and the Supreme Court may take a final view whether the judgement of the High Court is legally correct," note says.
Union Law Minister also suggests that the decision not to oppose the judgement has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's concurrence.
"We have already taken the pros and cons of the judgement and given a note to the Prime Minister. It is upto the Prime Minister whether to take up this matter with the Cabinet or not," says Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
The Law, Home and Health Ministries are hoping that the apex court will uphold the High Court judgement and if that happens, then the Centre can go ahead and change the law to add an explanation to Section 377 saying it's not applicable to consenting adults in private.
It can also make rape laws gender neutral as suggested by the Law Commission in its 177th report.
But it's the political costs of the debate that the Union Government is worried about given the hate mail the Home Ministry is receiving. (do we need this...Ghulam Nabi Azad for instance is a Muslim who has to take a decision on making gay rights legal. Islam is against homosexuality.
Section 377 is an issue that no one in the political class wants to touch and the Supreme Court is a convenient shield to deflect any criticism.
However, even the Supreme Court may not be the final word on the issue if the Centre realises that the political cost of decriminalising Section 377 is proving to be too high.
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