SC allows to withdraw curative petitions on Sec 377

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a plea by NGO 'Naz Foundation' for permission to withdraw its curative petitions filed against a 2013 judgement that re-criminalised gay sex making it an offence punishable up to life imprisonment under Section 377 of the IPC.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna closed the matter as a counsel appearing for the NGO said that the top court had already in September 2018, set aside the 2013 verdict that penalised same-sex consensual relations.

In a judgement on September 6, 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench held that parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised consensual unnatural sex, are "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary".

The top court had then struck down part of Section 377 of the IPC as being violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity.

On a clutch of writ petitions filed by dancer Navtej Jauhar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri and business executive Ayesha Kapur as well as 20 former and current students of the IITs, the court held that Section 377 was used as a weapon to harass members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community, resulting in discrimination.

NGO 'Naz Foundation' first raised and approached the Delhi High Court in 2001. In 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender. This was overturned in 2013 by the apex court which also dismissed the review plea. Subsequently, a group of curative petitions were filed.