The California Supreme Court’s decision legalising same sex marriages has been hailed as a landmark decision. The purpose of referring to this decision is to post a curtain-raiser to an important hearing on May 19 in Delhi High Court in Court No.7 before Justices A.K.Sikri and J.R.Midha. The hearing is over the case of Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT of Delhi & Ors. concerning the constitutionality of S.377 of Indian Penal Code. There have been two posts (here and here}on Balkinisation on the California decision. This report by Siddharth Narrain gives an update of Naz case upto 2005.
I think the California decision will have no impact as the issue
is different and the principles
invoked in that decision are not
relevant to this case. Although the
constitutionality of Section 377 is an issue removing it without
sufficient legal safeguards against
child abuse is not a good solution.
We need a law and mechanism
that safeguards children against
child abuse by paedophiles.
well, that should not be a concern since the naz petition does not ask for striking down the law but only demands reading it down so that ‘adult consensual sex’ is decriminalised. so it will continue to be on the books and continue to apply to child sexual abuse as well as same-sex rape cases.
venkatesan, we eagerly await your report of the hearing…