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Section 377: The fate of LGBT community was decided in 50 minutes by Supreme Court

A five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had assembled at around 11.33 am and started pronouncing the judgement at 11.35 am in a packed courtroom.

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It took nearly 50 minutes for the Supreme Court to read out its judgement deciding the fate of 'miniscule fraction' of persons belonging to LGBTQ community as it struck down the 158-year-old colonial law criminialising consensual unnatural sex.

A five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had assembled at around 11.33 am and started pronouncing the judgement at 11.35 am in a packed courtroom.

The maximum time was taken by the Chief Justice to pronounce the verdict and the entire process ended at around 12.25 am.

The CJI, who penned the verdict for himself and on behalf of Justice Khanwilkar, made it clear at the outset that there were four separate judgements but the views were "concurring".

The CJI read out the operative part of the verdict and the conclusion arrived at by him.

He was followed by Justice Nariman, Chandrachud and Malhotra.
Justice Malhotra took the minimum time to read out the judgement and she pronounced only the concluding paragraphs of her 50-page verdict. 

As the Supreme Court on Thursday striked down the British era law and said that consensual gay sex is not a crime, celebrations were marked across the country by the LGBT community.

The 493-page judgement was written by four judges headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. While CJI's verdict was 166 pages, Justice Nariman filed a 96-page judgment, Justice DY Chandrachud filed a 181-page judgement, and Justice Indu Malhotra's judgement was 50 pages.

The bench struck down part of (rpt part of) Section 377 of the IPC as being violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity.

"Any kind of sexual activity with animals shall remain a penal offence under Section 377 of the IPC,"  it said.

"Majoritarian views and popular views cannot dictate constitutional rights. LGBT community possess human rights like all other sections of society. Equality is essence of constitution. 377 is arbitrary," CJI Mishra said.

Delivering four separate but concurring judgements, the top court set aside its 2013 verdict which had re-criminalised consensual unnatural sex.

History owes an apology to members of the community for the delay in ensuring their rights," for denying them their rights and compelling them to live a life of fear, said Justice Indu Malhotra.

Section 377 refers to 'unnatural offences' and says whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine.

On a historic judgment, the apex court scrapped section 377 and said that  persons cannot be discriminated on the ground of sexual orientation.

(With PTI inputs)

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