Section 377: Supreme Court reserves verdict on gay sex law

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377, a controversial provision in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), that states homosexuality and consensual gay sex a punishable offence.

"Supreme Court reserves order on scrapping of Sec 377 (which criminalises homosexuality)," the news agency ANI reported.

The five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, decided to reserve its order on Tuesday and asked all the counsel who argued for and against Section 377 to submit written submissions by this Friday.

The constitutional bench, also comprising Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, on July 10, began its hearing to decide on whether to decriminalise Section 377, the British-era law that makes homosexuality a crime.

Supreme Court reserves order on scrapping of #Sec377 (which criminalises homosexuality)

— ANI (@ANI) July 17, 2018

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In 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of the plea, which seeks decriminalisation of the archaic provision. The plea was filed by Indian Institute of Technology's LGBT alumni association seeking scrapping of Section 377 of the IPC. Ashok Rao Kavi from Humsafar Trust and Arif Jaffar also filed petitions against the gay sex law in April.

Other pleas filed in this regard include the plea filed by hotelier Keshav Suri in the top court. Post that, the SC on April 23, sought the Centre's stand on the plea seeking scrapping of Section 377. The Centre on July 11, left the decision to the "wisdom of court".