NEW DELHI, Jan 28 � In another setback to the LGBT community, the Supreme Court today refused to relook at its verdict criminalising gay sex in the country, reports PTI.
A bench of justices HL Dattu and SJ Mukhopadhaya, in in-chamber proceedings, dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by the Centre and gay rights activists including noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal against its December 2013 verdict declaring gay sex an offence punishable up to life imprisonment.
With the dismissal of the review plea, the petitioners are left with only one option to get relief � by filing curative petition.
�We have gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,� the bench said in its brief order.
It also rejected the plea for oral hearing on the review petitions which are normally decided by judges in chamber without giving an opportunity to parties to present their views.
The Supreme Court had on December 11 set aside the Delhi High Court judgement decriminalising gay sex and thrown the ball into the Parliament�s court for amending the law.
The judgement revived the penal provision making gay sex an offence punishable with life imprisonment in a setback to people fighting a battle for recognition of their sexual preferences.
While setting aside the July 2, 2009 judgement of the Delhi High Court, the apex court had held that Section 377 (unnatural sexual offences) of the IPC does not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality and that the declaration made by the High Court is legally unsustainable.
Amid huge outrage against the judgement, the Centre had also filed a review petition in the apex court seeking a relook to �avoid grave miscarriage of justice to thousands of LGBT� persons who have been aggrieved by the apex court judgement contending it is �unsustainable� as it �suffers from errors�.
Seeking a stay on the operation of the judgement, gay rights activists and organisations, including NGO Naz Foundation, had said thousands from the LGBT community became open about their sexual identity during the past four years after the High Court decriminalised gay sex and they are now facing the threat of being prosecuted.
They had submitted that criminalising gay sex amounts to violation of fundamental rights of the LGBT community.
