Leaders must be cautious in comments on court verdicts: SC

The Supreme Court Friday expressed displeasure over critical comments by people in public life particularly the senior union ministers including Law Minister Kapil Sibal and Finance Minister P.Chidambram on its verdict holding that gay sex was an offence.

"Some of the statements made were not in good taste and it is not appreciable. We express our displeasure. But we can't do anything," observed a bench of Chief Justice P.Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi as it rejected the plea by Purushotham Mulloli.

"People holding high offices must be cautious in making statements on court verdicts," it said.

Mulloli had sought that the appointment of Milind Deora, Sibal, Chidambram as union ministers and Omar Abdullah as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister be declared as "unconstitutional and illegal" from the date they made critical comments on the apex court verdict on gay sex.

Seeking the interpretation of the third Schedule of the constitution that provides for the forms of oaths and affirmation that a citizen had to take to uphold the law of the land before occupying any public office, the petition had urged the court to issue necessary direction in this regard.

The PIL by Mulloli said that what these ministers had said post Dec 11, 2013, verdict holding homosexuality an offence, was in breach of their oath to uphold the law as it exists.

The petitioner said that during the course of the hearing of the challenge to the Delhi High Court verdict decriminalizing gay sex amongst consenting adults, the government adopted double standards and did not defend the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that treats homosexuality as an offence.