SC verdict on gay sex today

The first of a dozen key judgments to be delivered before Chief Justice Dipak Misra retires is listed for pronouncement on Thursday on the legality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), an archaic law of 1862 that criminalises homosexuality.

The judgment on behalf of a 5-judge Bench is believed to be written by the CJI and Justice D Y Chandrachud. Three other judges on the Bench were Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra. The judgment was reserved on July 17 after ten days of hearing and the Bench sought written submissions by July 20.

The issue is being agitated since 2001 when NGO Naz Foundation approached Delhi High Court to strike down Section 377 that criminalises certain consensual sexual acts even between adults as "against the order of nature."

In 2009, Delhi High Court decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender by holding the penal provision as "illegal". The Supreme Court, however, overturned this in 2013. After the Apex Court's decision, review petitions were filed and on their dismissal, curative petitions were filed to re-examine the verdict. Several fresh writ petitions were filed seeking decriminalisation of Section 377 after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

In the last hearing, the Centre left it to the wisdom of the Supreme Court to examine the constitutional validity of the penal provision which criminalise "consensual acts of adults in private", saying this was the only question under section 377 of the IPC which needed to be decided by the constitution bench.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said if the apex court decided to examine any question other than the constitutional validity of Section 377, it would have far-reaching and wide ramifications under various other laws.