SC reserves order on scrapping of section 377

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved the order on scrapping Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises homosexuality.

A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and also comprising of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Rohinton Fali Nariman, A. M. Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra issued the verdict.

On July 12, the Centre had told the apex court that it would leave it to the wisdom of its judges to decide the constitutional validity of Section 377.

The notion was put forth by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the Centre before the five-judge constitution bench of the top court.

Earlier in 2009, the Delhi High Court had decriminalised Section 377, but the order was later set aside by a Supreme Court bench.

Section 377 deals with "unnatural offences," and holds "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.