Govt. should try to bring suitable amendments in Section 377: CPI

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Sunday asked the NDA Government to initiate the process of bringing suitable amendments to Section 377, which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

"Arun Jaitley is a senior minister in the government and if he has such a view, he must initiate the process with his own government to take up the issue with judiciary at appropriate level in order to bring suitable amendments and ask judiciary to make suitable observations," Raja told ANI here.

"There is a campaign in the country to protect the interests of all sections and no law should be criminalised for that matter. So now, it is for the Supreme Court to take note of these issues and moreover how the government is going to take up with the Supreme Court or judiciary," he added.

Speaking at the Times Lit Fest yesterday, Jaitley had said that the Supreme Court should not have reversed the Delhi High Court order de-criminalizing consensual sex among homosexuals.

"When you have millions of people involved in this (homosexuality) you can't nudge them off. The Supreme Court's 2014 verdict banning gay sex is not in accordance with the evolving legal jurisprudence and the court needs to reconsider it," Jaitley said.

In December 2013, the Supreme Court had overturned the Delhi High Court's July 2009 judgement, which had declared Section 377 as unconstitutional.

The apex court had stated that amending or revoking Section 377 should be a matter left to the Parliament and not the judiciary.