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◗ Senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said the verdict has opened the door for complete equality for LGBTQ community

Senior legal experts on Thursday welcomed the historic verdict of the Supreme Court decriminalising consensual gay sex between adults, saying everyone has the right to live a dignified life with equality.

Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee termed it as a “celebratory” judgment, saying, “If an individual has certain sexual preference, it is not a crime.” “How can you make it a crime on a person of certain orientation,” he asked and said that members of the LGBTQ community have the right to live a life with dignity.

Mr Sorabjee said : “If it is a same- sex act, it should be between consenting adults ( age where the person knows the consequences of his actions) and in the privacy of home, not in public. To make the consenting adults criminals is absolutely wrong.”

While senior advocate Anand Grover said the verdict will change the political course and human values, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said the verdict has opened the door for complete equality for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer ( LGBTQ) community.

Mr Grover, who was appearing for one of the petitioners in the case, said the judgment has come on the expected lines. “It is a historic judgment which will change the political course and the human values,” he said.

Similarly, Mr Jethmalani said the verdict has opened the door for complete equality for the LGBTQ community. “The Supreme Court has opened the door and it has opened it quite wide. But there is still a long way to go.”

Mr Jethmalani said though the union government did not actively support the 2013 verdict of the apex court which had re- criminalised consensual unnatural sex, it had not opposed it either. “Lead could have been taken far more actively by the Union government,” he added.