Landmark

Copyright: Reuters

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code:

Of unnatural offenses - Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with [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 offense described in the section.


As of today: VOID.

In Delhi, that is. The rest of the country probably needs to wait till the Parliament can amend the Constitution.

After months of speculation, the Delhi High Court finally legalised consensual sex between consenting adults of the same sex. The Court said:

"We declare that Section 377 of IPC 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 of the IPC will continue to govern non-consensual penile non-vaginal sex and penile non-vaginal sex involving minors.

In our view, Indian constitutional law does not permit the statutory criminal law to be held captive by the popular misconception of who the LGBTs (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) are. It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is the antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual."

That's just a piece of the 105-page judgement, one that follows on to quote Nehru and the like, but I'll just leave that bit out.

Here's my take on this:

1) In your face, conservative-people-who-comment-on-Rediff-News-while-pretending-like-their-
opinion-is-the-only-one-that-matters! Destroying Indian culture, are we? It's all sorts of pathetic that someone would define culture and put it in restrictive bindings, especially since culture is meant to be dynamic. It is forever changing, and I welcome this one.

2) This is for those people who still think calling someone a 'fag' is an insult: They have rights now, man. So if you're in school and you see a guy unable to defend his goalpost when playing soccer, don't push your luck.

3) Which genius put the clauses on "equality" and "right to personal liberty" (Articles 14, 15 and 21) in the Constitution and still thought it would be OK to criminalise consensual inter-gender sex? It's funnier still, since we stuck by it for some 60-odd years now.

4) Do I have to buy another copy of the Criminal Major Acts now? Or can I just strike out the entire clause off it? Actually, the latter would give me immense satisfaction.


Now that that's done, I need to go brush up on Contracts - BIG test next week. Might have helped if I was actually paying attention in class, but I was kinda busy playing Hangman under the desk instead.


Adjourned.