In a landmark decision, The Supreme Court on Thursday, 6 September, decriminalised homosexuality by declaring Section 377, the penal provision which criminalised gay sex, as "manifestly arbitrary".
Delivering separate but concurring judgments, a five-judge bench of the apex court said it is the constitutional and not social morality which will prevail.
The verdict sparked celebrations amongst the LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer) community across India.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra, also speaking for Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said a persons attitude and mentality has to change to accept the others' identity and accept what they are and not what they should be.
Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra delivered concurring judgments thereby making the verdict of the five-judge bench a unanimous one.
As the five-judge bench declared its judgment and the celebrations broke out across the country, microblogging website twitter was no different. As tweets poured in from all sections, our politicians were no different, with Shashi Tharoor, Randeep Singh Surjewala and others appreciating the judiciary’s role in arriving at this landmark judgment.
However, at the time of publishing this article, not many prominent BJP leaders had tweeted on the judgement. BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, who had earlier advocated the decriminalisation of homosexuality, tweeted his support for the judgment.
DMK leader Kanimozhi said that India has taken an important step to accomplish human rights worldwide.
(With inputs from IANS)
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