Supreme Court likely to pronounce verdict on pleas challenging validity of Section 377 on September 6

Supreme Court will finally pronounce their verdict on Section 377 tomorrow, September 6 at 10:30 am.

The case is being heard by the newly reconstituted five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and comprises of Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.

On July 17, the Apex Court had reserved its verdict on whether to decriminalise Section 377, the archaic law which criminalises homosexuality. The SC asked all the counsel who argued for and against 377 to submit their written submissions.

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Section 377 refers to "unnatural offences" and 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 10 years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine.

The issue of section 377 was first raised by an NGO, Naaz Foundation, which had in 2001 approached the Delhi High Court that had decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender by holding the penal provision "illegal".

This 2009 judgement of the high court was overturned in 2013 by the apex court which had also dismissed a review plea. It had in 2013 restored the criminality of the sexual relationship between persons of the same sex, after the Delhi High Court' had decriminalised it in 2009.

The five-judge bench on July 10 had made it clear that it was not going into the curative petitions and would adjudicate on fresh writ petitions in the matter.

The writ petitions were opposed by the Apostolic Alliance of Churches, Utkal Christian Association and some other NGOs and individuals including Suresh Kumar Kaushal who had also challenged the 2009 verdict of the high court in the apex court.

(With inputs from PTI)