Supreme Court decriminalises gay sex scrapping Section 377 of IPC

In a historic judgement, after months of deliberations, the Supreme Court today struck down the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised homosexuality. A five-judge Constitution bench, headed

In a historic judgement, after months of deliberations, the Supreme Court today struck down the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised homosexuality.

A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Rohinton Fali Nariman, A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra, issued the verdict on a bunch of petitions filed to scrap the law.

The bench had earlier reserved its verdict on July 17. Known as Section 377 of the IPC, the 157-year-old law criminalised certain sexual acts, terming them as ‘unnatural offences’, punishable by a 10-year jail term.

Meanwhile, The Delhi High Court, in 2009, decriminalised homosexuality. But in 2013, the Supreme Court restored the colonial-era law and three years later, the top court agreed to hear the Section 377 petition once more.

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