Dear all, Thanks for beginning the very important discussion - TopicsExpress



          

Dear all, Thanks for beginning the very important discussion on the way forward, one year down the line. To recap a bit, within thirty days of the judgment, a review petition was filed before J. Dattu and J. Mukhophadyay which was rejected. Post that a curative petition was filed in which four senior judges of the Supreme Court headed by C.J Sathashivam agreed to an oral hearing. However since that date there have been no further hearings. In the meantime, C J Sathashivam has retired and has now been succeeded by C.J. Dattu. The current composition of the SC bench which will adjudicate the curative petition has two of the judges who sat on the review bench. The earliest the composition of the curative bench would change would be when J. Mukhopadyay retires in February of 2014 and C.J Dattu retires by the end of 2014. Till such time, it might not make strategic sense to push for an early hearing of the curative petition. What is to be done now is the question before us. I agree with Anis that the right strategic direction to proceed in is to push for repeal of the law through a Criminal law amendment bill in parliament. If one looks at the Koushal judgment itself the last line declares, ‘Notwithstanding this verdict, the competent legislature shall be free to consider the desirability and propriety of deleting Section 377 IPC from the statute book...’ As such, the parliament cannot now plead that the matter is before the Supreme Court. I think the value of a strong campaign to repeal the law would be manifold. Firstly, we engage directly with political parties and push the issue ( for now) from the courts to the wider political forum Secondly we get a focus to our campaign and stress strongly on the role of the parliament Thirdly, the campaign will build upon really incredible and positive build up of public opinion after the protests, public pressure and TV shows such as Satyamave Jayate. Fourthly regardless of whether the parliament repeals or not, the knock on effects of a powerful campaign will be building of positive public opinion . If and when the matter goes back to the judiciary the campaign will undoubtedly have a positive value. I would think that from the first anniversary onwards we should clearly shift the focus to the parliament and target our advocacy efforts there. Perhaps one way to phrase the campaign would be to call the campaign ‘Dignity first’, which is a comment on the need for the current government to reprioritize their issues. Its not enough to say India is open for business while ignoring the dignity concerns of the LGBT population. So specifically I would imagine our campaign must ask the question as to why the dignity concerns of LGBT persons are ignored by the current administration and stress the imperative to repeal Section 377. There are many more things we can and should do for the first anniversary, but for now will leave it at this ... Warmly arvind
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 08:51:53 +0000

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