Source – indianexpress.com<\/p>\n
The apex court has taken a \u201cbackward\u201d step by interpreting Section 377 of Indian Penal\u00a0Code and \u201ccurtailing the rights of gay\u201d people, Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur said on Monday. Justice Lokur, part of the SC collegium, said that it \u201chas to be debated and discussed to what extent\u201d does the collegium open regarding its functioning.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026So far as other vulnerable groups are concerned, the LGBT community, and particularly the transgender community, has attracted a lot of discussion and discourse. The Supreme Court took a forward step \u2026and ordered that transgenders are also human beings and that they have rights like anybody else\u2026. But I\u2019m not sure if the society has accepted them,\u201d Justice Lokur said at the annual human rights lecture of Commonwealth Human Right Initiative.<\/p>\n
The apex court, he said, has \u201calso taken a backward step by interpreting Section 377 (of IPC) and curtailing the rights of gays. But that matter is very much alive in SC and I would not like to say very much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, the SC bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra referred the matter regarding constitutional validity of Section 377, which criminalises same-sex relations between consenting adults.\u00a0 Speaking on \u201cThe state of Human Rights and Limits of Jurisprudence\u201d, Justice Lokur, pointing at \u201ctransparency in judiciary\u201d, said: \u201cThere are certain vital ingredients when we look at justice delivery and effectiveness. One is having independent judiciary\u2026. Parliament sometime transgresses constitutional limits and therefore judiciary has to step in and strike down a law\u2026. This happened when SC struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act and said that it violated basic structure of Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n