A score of petitioners challenging the Delhi high court verdict on decriminalising homosexuality in the Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the “credentials” of NGO Naz Foundation, on whose PIL the order had came.
The petitioners placed on record a “panchnama” of the Lucknow police before the top court in a case registered against some of the NGO activists in 2001 in a bid to contradict its claim of working for the eradication of AIDS and stated that in fact it was “promoting perverted” gay sex among youth.
The panchnama prepared on July 6-7, 2001, allegedly related to the recoveries of various pornographic articles, including videotapes, magazines and journals “containing nude photographs of men and women in different sexual postures”. It referred to the recovery of at least five pornographic video cassettes, two copies of printed pamphlets of Naz in Hindi, on alleged promotion of “perverted gay sex” among several other such articles.
The panchnama placed on record by advocate H.P. Sharma, appearing for VHP leader V.P. Singhal read as: “Fark padta aap kaisa sex karte hain, kisse karte hain. Farak nahin padta ki kya vah surakshit hai, sahi, galat, naitik, anaitik, prakritik, aprakritik.” The counsel said it is loosely translated as “it hardly matters how you perform your sex, with whom you perform it, It hardly matter whether it is safe, proper or improper, moral or immoral, natural or unnatural”.
Besides, some artificial material used for sexual purpose was recovered according to the panchnama. “Significantly, not a single condom was recovered in the raid by the police,” Mr Sharma said, informing the top court bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhyaya that despite all these facts brought to the notice of the Delhi high court, they were completely “ignored”.
Naz counsel Anand Grover admitted that these facts were brought on record.