JAITLEY DIFFERS WITH SC ON SEC. 377 JUDGEMENT

New Delhi, Oct. 6: Finance minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said he did not agree with the portion of the historic Supreme Court judgement decriminalising consensual gay sex that called sexuality a part of free speech, as he felt it raises questions on restraining any form of homosexual or bisexual activity in a school hostel, prison or army frontier.

He also differed on a portion of the apex court ruling on adultery, saying it may end up converting the Indian family system into a Western family system.

On the Supreme Court allowing women’s entry into the Sabarimala shrine, he said such a ruling cannot happen on select practices as it may have many social consequences.

Speaking at a summit, Jaitley said the judgment decriminalising gay sex was fine but “the problem comes when writing these historical judgements, you get carried away and want to be part of history and therefore you go a step further”.

He said he fairly agreed with the reasoning given by the court in the judgement that sexual activity is part of Article 21 of the Constitution that guarantees right of life and that no discrimination on the basis of sex should be there, but added that he completely disagrees with the reasoning that sexual activity is part of free speech.

“Because I think that’s little excessive and consequences of that may not be on decriminalisation. Free speech is entirely a different gambit, it can be restrained on the reasons of sovereignty, security, public order and so on and mind you there is tendency of creating new fundamental rights everyday. So when you convert this into a fundamental right and say its free speech then how do you restrain any form of sexual activity, homosexual or bisexual in a school hostel, prison, army frontier,” he said.

— PTI