Case Comment: Navtej Singh Johar V. Union Of India Thr. Secretary & Ministry Of Law & Justice (2018)
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 23
- 1 min read
Yuvraj Tokas, LLB, Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi
CITATION: [2018] 7 S.C.R. 379BENCH: Hon'ble Mr. Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Hon'ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.F. Nariman, Hon'ble Ms. Justice Indu Malhotra
JUDGEMENT: 06 September 2018
I. INTRODUCTION
As per S.377 of the Indian Penal Code, 18601, any person voluntarily indulging in carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished in accordance with the corresponding provision and held criminally liable. In the present case, the constitutional validity of the aforementioned provision was challenged before the Supreme Court of India with specific emphasis being made on coitus between partners belonging to the same sex. In it’s unanimous decision, the constitutional bench spearheaded by Dipak Misra, CJ., the court quashed it’s earlier ruling in the Suresh Koushal case2, thereby, striking down the constitutional validity of S.377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The reasoning of the court behind such a decision took into consideration the infringement of the fundamental rights faced by the citizens of India belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community and the fact that the view taken by the court in the Suresh Koushal case was impermissible as it stood in conflict with the court’s decision in the present case. This case continues to be a landmark judgement in a number of Law textbooks and is considered of utmost importance by many eminent jurists as it provides answers with corresponding reasoning as to the procedure of dealing with the identity crisis of the people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community.
