Today's #Section377 hearing at the Supreme Court was empathetic and invigorating, a far cry from the 2012 hearings that reduced the LGBT community to a series of acts, then refused to provide any kind of safeguards against state abuse because who after all was targeted? (Thread)
In the Koushal Court in 2012 , the two judges constantly interrupted counsel with outright irrelevant digressions on what constituted "carnal intercourse against the order of nature", the fig leaf of a phrase that targets LGBT persons under section 377 #Section377
Today, instead, there were many minutes of humdrum monologue, that bordered on boredom, as the lawyers submitted their arguments at length, as the affirmative words of Naz Foundation, Lawrence and Puttaswamy were spoken unchallenged in a court of law. #Section377
Where the Court did interrupt, it was in a manner that elevated the discussion. When Mukul Rohatgi argued that sexual orientation had nothing to do with gender he was stopped by J. Chandrachud to be told that to also speak of gender would be to expand the ambit of protection.
At another point, J. Nariman told the counsel he hoped there would be reliance on precedence from the European Court of Human Rights as well. Contrast this to the Koushal Court's horror of foreign precedent.
Nothing is going to make up for the fact that the Supreme Court should have finished off the decriminalisation story with the 2013 judgment, but if it's taken this long, let's atleast hope we get some fantastic jurisprudence for the struggles ahead. #Section377
