Bye Bye 377

The moment Supreme Court of India delivered its judgement declaring Right to Privacy as a fundamental right, saying that “Privacy assures dignity to the individual and its only when the individual enjoys life with dignity that liberty can be of true substance” and explicitly mentioned that privacy included ‘sexual orientation’, everyone knew its only a matter of time before Section 377 of Indian Penal Code is repealed. Today, the clock stopped ticking, and history is made by making Section 377 a part of history. However, I thought that the Supreme Court might not have any more thought-provoking content in its judgement about decriminalizing homosexuality, considering that a lot has already been said about privacy and dignity. But this judgement which also quoted the lyrics of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen proves that I cannot be more wrong about it.

Anyone who has been following this issue would remember that the beginning of this journey was in 2009 when Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality which took a U-turn after Supreme Court left it in the ambit of the legislature in 2013. In other words, they said “The society is not ready for this yet,” and we said, “Challenge accepted.” (Please feel free to replace ‘we’ with ‘they’ wherever applicable/not applicable. After all, liberty is for everyone.)

We started public debates explaining, discussing and sensitizing the topic of homosexuality and the rights of LGBTQ community. We sat through ridiculous explanations of a natural phenomenon as a disease and even more absurd claims of cure in Yoga. I should say we went really far when we touched the sculptures and paintings of temples. I still don’t understand how we even dared to ask questions and show proofs. Nevertheless, we came a long way from protesting movies like ‘Fire’ and portraying homosexuality as a taboo or comedy in movies like ‘Dostana’ to depicting sensitively in movies like ‘Margarita with a straw,’ thanks to simultaneous progress worldwide. 

When the Supreme Court accorded transgender community the right to be called third gender and the right against discrimination, it was more than a clear signal that the society is now almost ready, or at least the judges thought so. Finally, today, when the judgement of CJI Dipak Misra and Justice Khanwilkar read “I am what I am,” I wonder if there can be any more powerful statement in any other judgement on individual’s liberty. They are absolutely right to say “We can’t call ourselves developed society unless we are freed from the shackles of stereotyping.” But what left me between smiling and laughing is Justice Chandrachud’s statement “Can the state be allowed to decide?”