The Gujarat High Court recently granted bail to a 22-year-old man who was booked under Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after finding that the sexual relationship he had with the complainant-man was prima facie consensual in nature.

Justice Hasmukh D Suthar said,

"Prima facie, it appears that a consensual relationship was going on between the applicant and the complainant. The present applicant is only 22 years old and has no past antecedents."

It reiterated that consensual sex between adults had been decriminalised by the Supreme Court in the 2018 case of Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India.

Besides being charged with Section 377, the applicant had also been accused of having committed extortion under Sections 386 and 389 (putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion) of the IPC.

However, the Court found no evidence which suggested that he caused any grievous injury to the complainant, or put him under fear of death to extort money from him.

"So far as Section 389 is concerned, the accusation of the offence under Section 387 is not established, as there is no evidence of monetary transactions or threats made by the applicant with the intent to extort money," the Court noted in its order.

The applicant was booked under the aforesaid offences after a complaint was lodged against him by a 64-year-old-man.

He moved the High Court with an application seeking bail on the ground that he had been falsely implicated.

After noting that the there was nothing required to be recovered from the accused and that his trial would not possibly commence anytime soon, the Court granted him bail.

"Obviously, the conclusion of trial will take time and keeping the accused behind the bars is nothing but amounts to pre-trial conviction and therefore, considering the celebrated principle of bail jurisprudence is that “bail is a rule and jail is exception” as well as the concept of personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, present application deserves consideration," it further noted.

Advocates Sneh Purohit and Vishal D Davda appeared for the applicant.

Additional Public Prosecutor Asmita Patel represented the State of Gujarat.

[Read Order]