Overturn an Absurd Ban

The recent hearings in the Delhi High Court have left me stunned. Day after day, the lawyers pleading on behalf of the government have placed ludicrous arguments and hypotheses in front of the court regarding homosexuality. Were it not for the fact that so many are being deprived of their freedom, the situation would actually be quite funny. First the lawyers botched their affidavit and ended up implying that widow remarriage is a crime! Then they argued that legalising homosexuality would aggravate the AIDS epidemic [The judge replied that all sex should perhaps be banned, so as to ensure that no transmission of AIDS occurs!] The familiar rant of homosexuality being a social vice continues, of course (I can never fathom how such an argument can be mentioned in a court of law. Surely the test for banning a practice must be whether it infringes upon the rights of others, not whether it offends them. I strongly dislike astrology, but cannot even begin to think of a serious reason to impose a legal ban on the practice).

The principle of collective cabinet responsibility has long been abandoned in Indian politics, hence I will not even comment on the incongruity of the health minister publicily contradicting the home minister about the issue of legalising homosexual sex. It is way past time for the repeal of section 377, a legacy of Victorian British norms which has no place in modern free societies. I hope that the cabinet accepts the more sensible views of the health ministry, or that the Supreme Court at some point holds the section ultra vires (unconstitutional).