The Centre today left it to the Supreme Court to test the constitutional validity of section 377 of the IPC which criminalises "consensual acts of adults in private", urging that issues like gay marriages, adoption and ancillary civil rights of LGBTQ should not be dealt by it.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing petitions seeking decriminalisation of 158-year-old colonial law, said if it decided to strike down the law, then it would awaken the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community members and help them to live "life to the fullest".
It considered the concerns of the LGBTQ community and said once it decriminalised Section 377 of IPC, all restrictions on them "like forming an association will be lifted, as at present, they cannot form association merely because unnatural sex is a crime."
"We do not want a situation where two homosexuals enjoying a walk on Marine Drive should be disturbed by the police and charged under section 377," the bench said, adding that "the issue is if two consenting adults are in an relationship, then they shall not be liable to any kind of prosecution."
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