A day after questioning the “apathy” of legislature in debating the issue of homosexuality, the Supreme Court on Thursday had a dig at the Centre for thrusting upon the judiciary the duty of Parliament to decide which portion of Section 377 of IPC dealing with “unnatural” sex be declared as a criminal offence and which portion be taken out of its ambit.
In an apparent reference to the general complaint of the government that the judiciary is “encroaching upon” the powers of the executive and legislature, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhyaya said “this is an interesting case in which the executive has come forward asking the court to do the duty of Parliament.”
In the opinion of the SC, remoulding of a law, or amending it is entirely the job of the legislature and it could not be thrust upon the judiciary. “We have been saying this consistently during the hearing of the case in past several days,” Justice Singhvi, heading the bench said.
The strong comment from the bench on the division of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary came a day after Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati had clarified the Centre’s stand that it has decided to support the Delhi high court verdict liberating consenting gay sex, or homosexual relations from the ambit of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code.