• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Copyright, Terms and Conditions
  • Events
  • Grievance Redressal Mechanism
  • Home
  • Login
Indian Cultural Forum
The Guftugu Collection
  • Features
    • Bol
    • Books
    • Free Verse
    • Ground Reality
    • Hum Sab Sahmat
    • Roundup
    • Sangama
    • Speaking Up
    • Waqt ki awaz
    • Women Speak
  • Conversations
  • Comment
  • Campaign
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • Contact Us
    • Grievance Redressal Mechanism
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Features
    • Bol
    • Books
    • Free Verse
    • Ground Reality
    • Hum Sab Sahmat
    • Roundup
    • Sangama
    • Speaking Up
    • Waqt ki awaz
    • Women Speak
  • Conversations
  • Comment
  • Campaign
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • Contact Us
    • Grievance Redressal Mechanism
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Indian Cultural Forum
No Result
View All Result
in Features, Speaking Up

Women Organisations Welcome the SC Judgment on Section 377

byAIl India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)
September 6, 2018
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

AIDWA welcomes the historic and path breaking Supreme Court judgment in the Navtej Singh Johar case which decriminalises consensual sex between adults in the LGBTQ community and amongst others. This judgment in effect legally recognizes homosexuality and whittles down a 158-year-old colonial law which led to immense suffering and discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code referred to unnatural offences and punished“carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with any man, woman or animal, with ten years of imprisonment. Section 377 had been long used as a weapon to harass and punish the LGBTQ community.

The Supreme Court, rightly, in four concurring verdicts recognized sexual orientation as a biological phenomenon and said that any discrimination on this ground is violative of the fundamental rights of an individual. Overturning a retrogressive 2013 judgment in Suresh Kaushal’s case, the Court held that that case had wrongly been guided by a majoritarian perception of social morality. The CJI held that the respect for individual choice is the essence of liberty and that the LGBTQ community has the same equal rights under the constitution as everyone else. The judgment also rightly held that denying a person’s right to sexual orientation is violative of the right to privacy and freedom of an individual to conduct his sexual life and personal relationships as he wishes. Another judge remarked that the society owes an apology to the LGBTQ community for the ostracization and persecution they faced because of society's ignorance that homosexuality is a natural trait and its penal suppression infringes a host of fundamental rights.

Justice Chandrachud further said that decriminalizing gay sex is only a first step and the time has come to move forward and give the LGBTQ community other constitutional rights. The CJ pointed out that criminalizing gay sex is irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary while Justice Nariman has asked the state to give wide publicity to the judgment and to sensitise key actors like the Police.

AIDWA believes that members of the LGBTQ community like other citizens of the country should be governed by a full range of constitutional and civil rights and this progressive and positive judgment is a step towards achieving those rights.

 

Malini Bhattacharya                                    Adv Kirti Singh                                Mariam Dhawale

       President                                                 Legal Advisor                                 General Secretary


 

Related Posts

Only Halfway to Justice- Siddique Kappan
Speaking Up

Only Halfway to Justice- Siddique Kappan

byNewsclick Team
Why is increasing the minimum marriage age for girls to 21 years being debated?
Speaking Up

Why is increasing the minimum marriage age for girls to 21 years being debated?

bySarah Thanawala
Boris Johnson Quits
Speaking Up

Boris Johnson Quits

byThe Citizen Editorial

About Us
© 2023 Indian Cultural Forum | Copyright, Terms & Conditions | Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
No Result
View All Result
  • Features
  • Bol
  • Books
  • Free Verse
  • Ground Reality
  • Hum Sab Sahmat
  • Roundup
  • Sangama
  • Speaking Up
  • Waqt ki awaz
  • Women Speak
  • Conversations
  • Comment
  • Campaign
  • The Guftugu Collection
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Grievance Redressal Mechanism

© 2023 Indian Cultural Forum | Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In