IITians move Supreme Court for scrapping of Section 377

Source – indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Days after hotelier Keshav Suri, who runs the Lalit group of hotels, approached the Supreme Court for decriminalising gay sex, a batch of 20 current and former students of Indian Institutes of Technology has filed a petition in court saying criminalisation of sexual orientation resulted in a sense of shame, loss of self-esteem and stigma.

The petitioners belong to different parts of the country and are well-established in their professional lives. Some of them are scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and researchers and are of different age groups.

Among the IITians, the youngest is 19-year-old and a student of IIT Delhi and the oldest graduated from IIT in 1982. The petition has been filed on behalf of LGBT alumni association of IITs, comprising over 350 members. Most of the petitioners, including two women and one transwoman, are recent passouts.

Ruling that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is “deeply offensive to the dignity and self-worth of an individual”, the apex court had earlier agreed to examine the constitutional validity of Section 377 of CrPC criminalising gay sex.

“Despite being among the brightest minds in the country, having graduated from top national institutions, with the best possible opportunities available in terms of career, they are nevertheless criminalised by the archaic colonial provision in Section 377 and are deprived of the rights and freedom guaranteed to them by the Constitution,” the petition said.

“Several of the petitioners have had to grapple with depression, self-harm, and other mental health issues, all of which have had a very deleterious effect on their academic and career prospects,” it said.

“The stigma, silence and violence that Section 377 brings deeply hurts their professional promise and personal fulfilment. It has rendered many of them subject to mental trauma and illness that they continue to grapple with. Section 377 has contributed to the brain drain of LGBT alumni, including some of the petitioners from IITs,” the petition said.

They pleaded the court to intervene to finally settle the controversial issue as the government and Parliament had been reluctant to examine it.