I don't
how true it is but it is great - that today was only the fourth time when the
Supreme Court reopened a curative petition - against its own order.
Gay rights
activists say so claiming that they are now quite hopeful with the development
that saw the Supreme Court forming a five-member constitutional bench to look
into legality/criminality of the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (377 of
IPC) - that there would now be a positive outcome - based on their demand of
decriminalizing 377 again - based on related developments the world over
including in the conservative Catholic Ireland that legalized gay marriages
last year - based on their just demand to finally give expression to gay rights
in India.
If
homosexuality has been a taboo - it is basically for political reasons that
have decided how societies orient and reorient their structures - that how
societies have been orienting and reorienting their layers in every stage of
civilizational graduation - and homosexuality has always been there -
discriminated and persecuted - for something that is so personal, so intimate
that should have no concern about it.
The
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - that criminalizes gay sex says - "Unnatural offences.—Whoever
voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man,
woman or animal, shall be punished with 1 [imprisonment for life], or with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years,
and shall also be liable to fine. Explanation.—Penetration is sufficient to
constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described in this
section."
Well, that
is a lot - in fact a loadfull of stuff for complete harassment.
Who am to
decided what is natural or unnatural for someone else's sexual preference - an
activity so intimate - so if anything is unnatural in all this - it is banning
gay sex or homosexuality.
Hope, with
today's development in the Supreme Court and with yesterday's development in
the Madras High Court where a judge observed that it is the high time that we
legalize homosexuality in India, the road ahead will see going back to the days
which began after the Delhi High Court decision in July 2009 that
decriminalized 377.
The four
years, between the 2009 decision by the Delhi High Court and the 2013 decision
by the Supreme Court, did much positives for the gay people with the LGBT
community coming out in the open to open assert their sexual preference. Yes
for the whole LGBT community - we, as a society, need to accept the fact that
alternative sexual preferences have always been there in our society, and that
that is also a way of life.
The two
years since the SC decision in December 2013 have been a downhill journey,
especially persecuting for those who had started breathing free in that four-year
period with arrests and humiliations.
Scrapping
377 could be an opportunity for politicians after the apex court put the ball
in politicians' court observing 'Parliament was the appropriate place to repeal
the IPC section'. But as expected, our conservative politicians didn't make any
move in the last two years.
Today, the
Supreme Court could have taken the route the Delhi High Court had taken,
decriminalizing 377 and issuing directives to the government in this regard.
But even this one, constituting a constitutional bench shows there has been a
serious mindset change since December 2013 and we can expect something positive
this time.