LGBT community protests SC's refusal to review discriminatory verdict

New Delhi: Hundreds of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community today protested against Supreme Court's refusal to review its verdict criminalising homosexual sex in the country.

The members of the community took out a candlelight march at Jantar Mantar and said they would continue with their fight for equal rights.

Activist Kavita Krishnan said at the protest that, "There were eight review petitions... All of them were very well argued and they all made the point that the SC judgement de-criminalising homosexuality was actually a very shoddy one.

"SC, in merely half-an-hour, dismissed all these very well-reasoned arguments by professors, teachers, parents of LGBT people against Sec. 377," she said.

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Section 377 of IPC criminalises sexual activities "against the order of nature", including homosexual acts. The section

was declared unconstitutional with respect to sex between consenting adults by Delhi High Court in 2009.

But that judgement was overturned by Supreme Court in December last year. A bench of justices HL Dattu and SJ Mukhopadhyay, in in-chamber proceedings today, dismissed a clutch of petitions filed by the Centre and gay rights activists, including noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal, against its verdict declaring gay sex an offence punishable with up to life in prison.

"SC really had a great chance to correct its mistake... It is the duty of the apex court to protect the fundamental rights of every citizen of," said Mohnish Malhotra, an LGBT community member and gay rights activist.

PTI