Govt still coy on gay case
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday held a meeting with Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, all of whom were mandated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide the Government’s stand on the issue at a time when the High Court judgment had not come.
The government appeared to be cautious in its approach on what to do with the controversial law relating to same gender sex with a meeting of three senior ministers deciding to take an in-depth view on the issue, notwithstanding Delhi High Court order decriminalising the provision.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday held a meeting with Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, all of whom were mandated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide the Government’s stand on the issue at a time when the High Court judgment had not come.
Note on judgement
Chidambaram told reporters after the 45-minute-meeting that the judgment was discussed and it was decided that the Law Ministry would prepare a note on it after which they will look into it.
“We were asked to meet and take a view on the matter which was pending the High Court. However, when we fixed the date for today’s meeting, we did not know that the judgment will be delivered...
“...so we have taken note of the judgment...the judgment deals with only one aspect of section 377. Section 377 is left intact except one aspect. So we have asked department of Law to prepare a note based on the judgement and we will look at it and then we will decide what needs to be done,” he said.
Chidambaram parried questions whether the government would move the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order.
Moily said the three will submit their report to the Prime Minister. “We met and analysed the judgment and will submit our report to the Prime Minister,” he said. Chidambaram and Moily are understood to be in favour of repealing the provision of the IPC, while Azad was reportedly of the opinion that the matter should be referred to Parliament. Former Home Minister Shivraj Patil and former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had taken divergent stand on the issue before the court.
