Three seniormost judges
including Chief Justice TS Thakur will hear in open court a curative petition
against the Supreme Court's verdict in December 2013 restoring a colonial era
ban on gay sex.
The curative petition is the
last legal resort and is usually heard by judges in chambers. The Supreme Court
had rejected a review petition in 2014.
Gay rights activists, an NGO
Naz Foundation and others including filmmaker Shyam Benegal have challenged the
Supreme Court's verdict confirming the validity of Section 377 of the Indian
Penal Code that makes gay sex a crime for which the punishment can be a life
term.
In 2009, the Delhi High
Court exempted gay sex between consenting adults from Section 377 and said the
law was against the right of privacy, personal liberty and equality.
The Supreme Court reversed
the landmark ruling in 2013, ending four years of decriminalisation that had
helped bring homosexuality into the open in largely conservative India. The
court said only Parliament can remove or change laws.
The decision shocked
activists who had expected the court to rubber-stamp the earlier ruling. It
also drew comments from across the world expressing dismay.
Section 377, the 1860 law
which is widely interpreted to refer to homosexual sex, bans "carnal
intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal."
The Congress appealed
against the Supreme Court decision and had pledged to remove the law if it came
to power, but it lost to the BJP in the 2014 election.
Since the BJP came to power,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has backed calls for changing the law and ending
the ban. "When millions of people world over are having alternative sexual
preferences, it is too late in the day to propound a view that they should be
jailed. The Delhi High Court's view appears more acceptable," Mr Jaitley
said at an event last year.
In December, Congress
parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor failed to introduce his bill seeking to amend
the law on gay sex, with 74 members in the Lok Sabha voting against the bill
and only 21 backing it, making even a debate impossible.
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