Unnatural Sex

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to treat as representation a PIL against exclusion of penal provisions for the offences of unnatural sex and sodomy from the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the Indian Penal Code. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gelela asked the Central government to expeditiously decide the representation, preferably within six months. The court disposed of the petition and granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the court for revival of plea in case there is a delay on the government's part to decide his representation. The court was hearing a PIL by Gantavya Gulati, a lawyer who was appearing in person, seeking to address the "exigent legal lacuna" resulting from the enactment of the BNS which has also led to the repeal of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The bench passed the order after the central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia submitted that the issue was under ...

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill which is proposed to replace the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) does away with two contentious provisions on unnatural sex and adultery that were diluted and struck down respectively by the Supreme Court in 2018. Under the IPC, Section 377 says "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with [imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine". On September 6, 2018, a five-judge bench unanimously decriminalised a part of Section 377. However, the provision still stood in the statute book to deal with unnatural sexual offences against minors, against their consent and bestiality. In the new BNS Bill, there is no provision on "unnatural sex". On September 27, 2018, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck off from the statute books Section 497 of IPC which