Hotelier Kesav Suri moves SC seeking scrapping of Section 377

Hotelier Kesav Suri, MD of the Lalit Suri Hospitality group and known LGBT rights activist, has moved the Supreme Court urging it to scrap Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalises any sort of homosexual activity and several other forms of “unnatural” heterosexual activity.

The plea was mentioned in the top court before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on an urgent out of turn basis by lawyer Shally Bhasin. The bench comprising among others by Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said that they would hear the plea on Monday.

Suri’s petition is the latest to be filed in the top court.


Earlier several other gay celebrities such as dancer N.S. Johar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hotelier Aman Nath and business executive Ayesha Kapur, had also filed petitions urging the court to quash Section 377 to ensure that the numerically small but significant LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals and Transgenders) community can lead a life of dignity under the Constitution of India.

Section 377 was introduced by the British in the IPC as part of Victorian mores prevalent then, though it was not a crime in liberal ancient India.

The top court is also sitting on several other pleas filed against its Dec, 2013, judgement re-criminalising any form of “unnatural” sexual behaviour.

The court had in 2013 ruled that it was not the court's work to keep pace with changing cultural norms and lobbed the issue back to the executive to change the law.

No law has been forthcoming from the legislature on this score. The top court ruling had undone a widely hailed Delhi High Court judgement of July 3, 2009, decriminalising all sorts of adult consensual sexual behaviour.

The review against the judgement was dismissed by the original top court bench comprising Justices G.S. SInghvi and S.J. Mukhopadhayay.

A curative -- the last stop in the legal process where an issue is referred to five senior judges of the top court -- has been pending in the top court ever since.

In Jan, 2018, a three-judge bench led by the CJI had referred the issue to be re-examined in the light of the judgement upholding right to privacy as a fundamental right of every citizen to a five-judge Constitution bench.

However, the case is yet to be heard. The LGBT community has argued that this section of the IPC was inconsistent with their right to dignity and privacy. The law, they argued, has been often misused by police to harass the community.

Police claim that the law was required to deal with child rape cases and bestiality.