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Consensual gay sex not a crime, Sec 377 violates right to equality: Supreme Court

New Delhi: Gay sex among consenting adults is not a criminal offence, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday, holding that part of a 158-year-old colonial law that criminalised it, violated the constitutional right to equality and dignity.
The top court decriminalised part of the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises consensual gay sex, saying it was irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra unanimously held that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community possess the same constitutional rights as other citizens of the country.
It termed sexual orientation as a “biological phenomenon” and “natural” and held that any discrimination on this ground was violative of the fundamental rights.
“It is declared that insofar as Section 377 criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution. It is, however, clarified that such consent must be free consent, which is completely voluntary in nature, and devoid of any duress or coercion,” the bench ruled.
Delivering a 493-page judgement, the court said “morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality and only constitutional morality can allowed under the rule of law”, while also holding that section 377 was used as a weapon to harass the members of the LGBTQ community, resulting in discrimination,
Justice Indu Malhotra, a member of the bench in her separate judgement, said that history owed an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries.
Justice D Y Chandrachud also said that due to Section 377, the LGBTQ members were forced to live in hiding and as second class citizens, while the others used to enjoy the right of sexual orientation.
The bench, which also comprised Justices R F Nariman and A M Khanwilkar, besides the CJI, Malhotra and Chandrachud, said that part of Section 377, which prohibited sexual relationship between consenting adults of the same sex, was violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity.
It said the State cannot persecute people and decide the boundaries between what is permissible or not and observed that section 377 was based on “deep-rooted stereotypes of the society”.

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