A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for dismissal of Centre’s plea seeking review of its judgement on making gay sex an offence in the country. Setting aside 2009 verdict of Delhi High Court decriminalizing consensual same sex, the apex court on December 11, 2013 re-criminalized homosexuality, bringing Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) back in action. A petition from the Ministry of Home Affairs was submitted in the Supreme Court on December 20 last year seeking review of its verdict.
“The review petition distorts the fine constitutional balance between the Parliament, government of India and the apex court by effectively creating an unwarranted conflict between the Parliament and the government of India and by needlessly interposing this court into the said conflict. As such, the petition filed by Centre deserves to be dismissed in entirety,” the petition, filed by advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi, remarked. “The cause of democracy is better served by the legislature stepping in to modify the statute rather than a judge pour unwarranted meaning into the dead words of a statute.” Advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi had always been in news for his surprising PILs in Apex Court.
The petition alleged that the review petition is against the constitutional norms as the government cannot ask the court to set aside the penal provision Section 377 of the IPC which is a parliamentary statute. The verdict of the apex court sparked protests across the country and globe. Naz Foundation India has also submitted a petition seeking review of the Sec 377 verdict.