Five LGBT Celebrities' Plea Against Section 377 To Be Heard Today By SC

When a high court judge claims to have “never met a gay person,” it isn’t surprising that a country’s laws might turn against all those who don’t fall into a more heteronormative spectrum of sexuality. Section 377 still cites gay Sex as unnatural and illegal in India, and this legal rhetoric has been used time and again to blackmail and disrupt the lives of LGBT Indians. Still, the resistance against the obsolete law has far from ended.

Catalysed by Justice Singhvi’s remark in 2013, five homosexual celebrities (all have illustrious careers in arts, culture and business fields) were motivated to file a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of Section 377, claiming that it violates their fundamental right to life and liberty.

Sunil Mehra, a senior journalist, Ritu Dalmia, chef and restaurateur, Navtej Singh Johar, a renowned Bharatnatyam Dancer, Ayesha Kapur, a well known businesswoman and Aman Nath, the owner of Neemrana Hotel Chain are the petitioners in question and their case is coming up for hearing before the bench today (June 29) as the SC resumes its work after a 45-day-long vacation. Leading lawyers Kapil Sibal and Arvind Datar will argue for the petitioners while Justice S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan will be hearing their plea, one the SC had referred to a 5-judge bench on February 2 claiming “important constitutional issues” had been raised.

Today, they will decide whether or not to admit this plea at all.
The petition itself is a bold one that proves just how far the issue of sexuality and LGBT rights has truly come in India. The first paragraph reads, “The petitioners are lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGBT) citizens of India whose rights to sexuality, sexual autonomy, choice of sexual partner, life, privacy, dignity and equality, along with the other fundamental rights guaranteed under Part-III of Constitution, are violated by Section 377,” while the petition also makes sure to acknowledge the 20-year-long relationship between Mehra and Johar who also live together.

Now more than ever, prominent and recognizable faces are willing to go public with their sexual preferences for the larger fight at hand and it is immensely encouraging for the fight against 377, likely to inject new blood into the battle against the obsolete law.

By invoking Article 21 of the constitution, the petition seeks to remind the court that right to life and personal liberty also includes the right to “sexuality, sexual autonomy and choice of sexual partner.” As Scroll points out, “It makes a simple comparison to inter-caste and inter-community marriages that the Court has protected on numerous occasions in the past, while asserting that sexuality is an “intrinsic, inherent and immutable characteristic of any human being” that must be protected rather than criminalised or stigmatised.”

The petition continues to elaborate that “The Petitioners are not, therefore, seeking protection only as sexual minorities but seeking recognition of sexual characteristics that inhere in all human beings. The petitioners cannot overcome a lurking fear that their consensual relationships, even within the privacy of their homes, may invite coercive state action at the hands of a busybody, rival, political party or any 3rd party who...is motivated only by malice/prejudice.”

Mehra told Scroll he believes this petition is more of a follow-up to pleas like that of NAZ Foundation in 2009, which actually saw a Delhi High Court deem Section 377 as unconstitutional and violative of the right of consenting adults from the lGBT community. Unfortunately, it was this very judgment that the SC upturned in 2013, while upholding Section 377 as constitutionally sound, essentially recriminalizing homosexuality once again. One can only hope the contours of this fight are changing and the tides turn in the favor of the oppressed minority yet again with this plea.
We stand with the five petitioners today and fervently hope this bench will uphold personal freedom and liberty before all else.