Gay activists, who recently marched in New Delhi, demanding decriminalisation of homosexual acts among consenting adults on Friday got a shot in the arm with the Delhi High Court finding nothing 'unusual' in holding such a rally.
"Such marches are held all over the world. Recently in London more that five lakh people were on the streets for the cause. There is nothing unusual in holding such rallies," Justice A K Sikri said, dismissing objections raised by anti-gay rights activists, including RSS idealogue B P Singhal, over the June 29 rally.
"If people think that they are doing something wrong then police is there to take action against them," the court said.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by NGO Naz Foundation seeking the court's direction to declare Section 377 of IPC, which provides punishment up to life sentence for indulging in homosexual acts, as 'unconstitutional' as it violated a citizen's fundamental right and promoted illegal sex.
The anti-gay right activists are a party in the case as they have been opposing the Foundation's plea in court.
The petitioner pleaded that the matter be heard on a priority as it had been pending in the court for the last three years.
"People (homosexuals) are being increasingly victimised by the society. Time is a crucial factor in the case and we want this matter to be heard on day-to-day basis," advocate Anil Grover, appearing for the NGO, contended.
Accepting the contention, the court agreed to hear the matter daily and listed the matter for hearing on July 21.
The bench allowed the petitioner and the Centre to approach the Chief Justice before July 21 for any further clarification.
The bench, in the last hearing, had sought the assistance of the Attorney General in dealing with the petition.
The petitioner had contended that gays are facing problems as they were afraid of revealing their sexual orientation.
"Section 377 demeans a gay man. It silences a gay man into accepting the discrimination against him. He will not come out to declare his orientation," the NGO had contended.
"It can be criticised on the basis of moral ground but it is illegal to make homosexual acts between consenting adults an offence," the petitioner said.
The Centre in its reply had taken a contradictory stand with the Ministry of Home Affairs favouring the retention of penal provisions while the Health Ministry was against the enforcement of Section 377 in cases involving consenting adults.
"Indian society strongly disapproves of homosexuality and disapproval is strong enough to justify it being treated as a criminal offence even where consenting adults indulge in it in private," the Home Ministry had said in its affidavit.
"Deletion of the Section can open the flood gates of delinquent behaviour and be misconstrued as providing unbridled licence for homosexual acts," it had said.
The Ministry of Health, on the other hand, has not favoured the enforcement of the penal provisions against consenting homosexual adults.
"Enforcement of Section 377 can adversely contribute to pushing the persons suffering from HIV underground, which would make such risky sexual practises go unnoticed," said an affidavit filed by National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), which comes under the Ministry of Health.
Pointing to the vulnerability of homosexuals to HIV infection, the NACO had said that there were around 25 lakh male homosexuals and around eight per cent of them were infected with HIV while in normal people the infection was only one per cent.
"Men Having Sex with Men (MSM) are mostly reluctant to reveal same sex behaviour due to fear of law enforcing agencies, pushing the infection underground and making it difficult to access them," the affidavit file by NACO had said, adding that around 69 per cent MSM know about preventing infection but only 36 per cent use condoms.
