Among the 12 media personnel awarded are the PTI Srinagar Bureau Chief, Inayat Jehangir and PTI video journalist, Jammu Somil Abrol. Other awardees in this category include Avtar Krishan Bhat, Vivek Suri, Sunil Ji Bhat, Dinesh Manhotra, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Razia Noor, Ishfaq Gowhar Zargar, Syed Khalid Hussain, Sarosh Kafeel, and Neeta Sharma.
The Naz Foundation is trying to sensitise workplaces towards the LGBT community, reports Geetanjali Krishna.
Activists are dissatisfied over the Supreme Court judgement upholding the constitutional validity of the penal provision making gay sex a punishable offence.
Gay rights activists on Monday submitted in the Supreme Court that criminalising homosexual acts is against constitutional values and law should not interfere when consenting adults are involved.
Most people around the world know Bruni as Italian-born French songwriter, singer and former model, but few know that she is also the brand ambassador for Global Fund, an international financing institution that invests the world's money to save lives, especially victims afflicted with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Following is the chronology of the eight-year-long legal proceedings, which ended on Thursday with the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex among consenting adults.
Gay activists and the non governmental organisation which fought an eight-year-long legal battle for their rights on Thursday hailed the Delhi High Court verdict legalising homosexuality as 'progressive'. "Now it seems we are in 21st century as the rights of homosexuals have been recognised by the high court. This very progressive judgment recognises the right to equality," said Anjali Gopalan, founder of Naz foundation, the NGO which filed the petition in HC.
Her birthday falls on December 23, but little children at the Naz Foundation serenaded French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on Monday.
The court rejected the petition as it found no merit in it.
"Let the matter be listed for the Chief Justice for appropriate orders," the bench said.
The gay celebrities, in their plea, said their lives have been 'inexorably constricted and their rights infringed' by the penal provision.
A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances in court which is normally decided by judges in-chamber. In rare cases, such petitions are given an open court hearing.
Human rights activists and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community have a reason to smile. Offering a sliver of hope, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear in open court a curative plea against the order criminalising gay sex.
Tehseen Poonawalla, a gay rights and social activist, besides being a supporter of the Congress party, on Tuesday said that irrespective of the Supreme Court's ruling on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises sexual activities "against the order of nature", arguably including homosexual acts, he would plead with the Apex court to legalise gay marriage.
The apex court referred to a larger bench a plea seeking decriminalisation of gay sex between two consenting adults.
Namrata Thakker takes a look at his Instagram account and finds out.
The gay rights activists had said thousands from the LGBT community became open about their sexual identity during the past four years after the Delhi high court decriminalised gay sex and they were now facing the threat of being prosecuted.
The state may have some power to put reasonable restriction, says the apex court.
The decision was immediately welcomed by gay rights activists across the country as it reopens the legal debate on homosexuality.
'The reality is that 377 compromises the freedom and affects many of us adversely,' Navtej Singh Johar tells Manavi Kapur.
Timeline of events relating to proceedings on the issue.
Timeline of events relating to proceedings on the issue.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider the plea for an open court hearing on curative petitions filed by gay rights activists against its verdict criminalising homosexuality.
The judgement makes you feel so terrible at every step that the apex court of the country, in which so many people have so much faith, would do something like this, says Anjali Gopalan
The Right to Privacy judgment reinstates the individual as VIP, says Mitali Saran.
The court has correctly refrained from defining privacy or delineating definitively its contours
Justice S Muralidhar on Thursday apprised judges and lawyers of the Delhi high court about the sequence of communication on his transfer to Punjab and Haryana high court, saying that he was informed about it on February 17 and had no problem with it.
Vibhor Sen tells Divya Nair/Rediff.com about the struggles he faced before he finally accepted his sexuality.
'Given the current fear that the government is going to appoint judges who were in line with its ideology, there should be full disclosure in Parliament about the details of every judge appointee,' Indira Jaising -- the first woman to be appointed additional solicitor general of India -- tells Geetanjali Krishna.
'A progressive judgment could have moved India forward, given hope to millions of young homosexual men and women, by telling them that there is nothing wrong with them, their feelings and emotions are fine, that it is natural and alright for them to be attracted to people of their own gender and to express love as they wish to. 'But instead, the Wednesday ruling does not protect the rights of a large minority. And that is indeed shameful and hugely disappointing,' writes Aseem Chhabra. 'Instead the Supreme Court judges did not step in to protect the rights of a large minority. And that is indeed shameful and hugely disappointing,' writes Aseem Chhabra.