The Union government on Thursday appeared to be speaking in different voices in the Supr-eme Court on the issue of legalising homosexuality in the wake of the Delhi high court’s 2009 verdict declaring that “consensual” gay sex was not a criminal offence under Sec. 377 of the IPC, which provides for a life-sentence for any form of “unnatural” sex.
The piquant situation arose during the ongoing hearing before a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J.
Mukhopadhaya on a bunch of appeals challenging the HC order when senior additional solicitor-general P.P. Malhotra, conducting the Centre’s case and opposing the impugned verdict, was “interrupted” by another ASG, Mohan Jain, to say that he was representing the health ministry which “has no stand” on the issue.
It virtually left Mr Malhotra “baffled” after day-long arguments “assailing” the HC order and stating that the verdict could not be sustained as any form of homosexual relations were “immoral” and against the “accepted social order”.
The situation was complicated further with the home ministry issuing a statement amidst court proceedings also stating that “it has not taken any position on homosexuality...”