The Supreme Court today rejected the Central government’s plea to defer the hearing related to the challenge to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code..Mentioning the matter before the Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, the Centre sought deferment of the hearing scheduled for tomorrow, as it had not filed its response..“We will go ahead with the scheduled hearing. We will not adjourn it. You can file whatever you want during the hearing”, the Bench was quoted as saying..Last week, a notice was published on the Supreme Court website stating that a Constitution Bench would hear the petition filed by Navtej Johar and others beginning July 10..It was later revealed that two new judges will hear the challenge; the Bench will now comprise Chief Justice Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. Earlier, Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan were part of the Bench along with Misra J., Khanwilkar J. and Chandrachud J..In 2013, the Supreme Court had re-criminalized same-sex intercourse under Section 377 of the IPC. Four years before that, the Delhi High Court in Naz Foundation vs. Government of NCT declared that Section 377 was unconstitutional as applied to consensual private homosexual intercourse.
The Supreme Court today rejected the Central government’s plea to defer the hearing related to the challenge to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code..Mentioning the matter before the Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, the Centre sought deferment of the hearing scheduled for tomorrow, as it had not filed its response..“We will go ahead with the scheduled hearing. We will not adjourn it. You can file whatever you want during the hearing”, the Bench was quoted as saying..Last week, a notice was published on the Supreme Court website stating that a Constitution Bench would hear the petition filed by Navtej Johar and others beginning July 10..It was later revealed that two new judges will hear the challenge; the Bench will now comprise Chief Justice Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. Earlier, Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan were part of the Bench along with Misra J., Khanwilkar J. and Chandrachud J..In 2013, the Supreme Court had re-criminalized same-sex intercourse under Section 377 of the IPC. Four years before that, the Delhi High Court in Naz Foundation vs. Government of NCT declared that Section 377 was unconstitutional as applied to consensual private homosexual intercourse.
