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India’s top court reviews homosexuality ban
NEW DELHI, July 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – India’s top court began reviewing
Tuesday petitions against a colonial-era ban on homosexuality, in the latest
chapter of a legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and more
liberal Indians.
Section 377 of the penal code, a relic from 1860s British legislation, bans
gay acts as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and allows for
jail terms of up to life, although prosecutions are rare.
In 2009 the Delhi High Court effectively decriminalised gay sex, saying a
ban violated fundamental rights, but the Supreme Court reinstated it in 2013
after religious groups successfully appealed.
The Supreme Court said the High Court had overstepped its authority and
that the responsibility for changing the law rested with lawmakers not the
courts. Efforts to introduce legislation however came to nothing.
In January this year however, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge
by a clutch of high-profile Indians who said the law created an atmosphere of
fear and intimidation in the world’s largest democracy.
A ruling was not expected imminently, with Tripti Tandon, a lawyer for one
of the petitioners in the case, saying the hearing would last “two weeks if
not more”.
Her client, Aris Jafer, was arrested and sent to prison for 50 days in
2001.
Manvendra Singh Gohil, an openly gay Indian prince who is an ambassador for
the AIDS Healthcare Foundation charity, said on Tuesday he hoped the
“draconian” law would be changed.
“The law doesn’t affect only the gay community,” he told AFP. “In fact it
violates the fundamental right of every Indian.”
“(If) this law continues it would mean we are still slaves of the British.”
The gay community was emboldened last year when the Supreme Court referred
explicitly to the issue in a landmark ruling upholding the right to privacy.
Gay sex has long been taboo in conservative India, particularly in rural
areas where nearly 70 percent of people live, with homophobia widespread.
Some still regard homosexuality as a mental illness.
Hindu right-wing groups supportive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been especially vocal, calling gay
relationships a disease and a Western cultural import.
Last month, a lesbian couple committed suicide by jumping into a river in
the western state of Gujarat, in just the latest tragedy as gay men and women
struggle to conform to societal norms.
According to official data, 2,187 cases under Section 377 were registered
in 2016 under unnatural offences. Seven people were convicted and 16
acquitted.
Globally 72 countries criminalise same-sex relationships, according to a
2017 report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex
Association.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1450 hrs