“It is indeed a historic moment for India, the world’s largest democracy and a global power on the rise. Neighbouring China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997 and with this landmark ruling in India, a majority of Asians now will not face criminal charges for their sexual identities.
It said less than 20 percent of those surveyed had publicly revealed their sexual identity while two out of every five homosexuals in the country have faced blackmail after the top court had re-criminalised homosexuality in 2013. There are no official figures on the number of harassment cases as victims are scared to report crimes, fearing section 377 will be used against them.Īctivist Kavi’s Humsafar Trust, a charity that works with India’s LGBTQ community, included a crises data report in its petition to the top court. The government told the top court it would leave the decision to “the wisdom of the court”. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has an overwhelming majority in parliament, has been silent on the issue of homosexuality so far. She had urged the judges to “emancipate a class of people who have not been given the promises of our Constitution”. “This section 377 is a terrible colonial legacy,” Menaka Guruswamy, one of the lawyers representing the petitioners, had argued in court in July. This victory belongs to all those on the streets, those who didn’t give up loving the wrong way, from inconvenient castes, treated Koushal with disdain and are heroes todayĪctivists say the law banning homosexuality had been used to harass and target the community. Hundreds of LGBTQ campaigners, who had gathered outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi, broke into loud cheers as news of the ruling reached them.Īt its core, #Section377 was a fight for dignity and self respect as queer individuals and community. Equal rights are accessible for us with this decriminalisation,” one of the petitioners in the case, Ashok Row Kavi, told Al Jazeera. “We become equal citizens with the removal of Section 377. Thursday’s judgement is a shot in the arm for India’s gay community. Constitutional morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality.” Social morality cannot be used to violate the fundamental rights of even a single individual. “The constitution is a living organic document … pragmatic interpretation has to be given to combat rigorous inequality and injustice. “Any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violates fundamental rights,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who was head of the five-judge bench, said in Thursday’s ruling. The court heard petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377 – a colonial-era law under which a same-sex relationship is an “unnatural offence” punishable by a 10-year jail term. India’s Supreme Court has decriminalised gay sex in a landmark ruling. Thursday's judgement is a shot in the arm for India's LGBTQ community