Supreme Court likely to pronounce verdict on Section 377 on September 6

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its verdict on July 17 after hearing various stakeholders for four days, including gay rights activists. Besides the CJI, the bench also comprised Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. The apex court had asserted that courts cannot wait for a “majoritarian government” to decide on enacting, amending or striking down a law if it violates fundamental rights.

The apex court heard the writ petitions filed by dancer Navtej Jauhar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri and business executive Ayesha Kapur and 20 former and current students of the IITs. 

They have sought decriminalisation of consensual sex between two consenting adults of the same sex by declaring section 377 of IPC as illegal and unconstitutional. 

The issue was first raised by NGO Naaz Foundation, which had in 2001 approached the Delhi High Court which had in 2009 decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender by holding the penal provision as “illegal”.