LEGAL LANDSCAPE OF SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS IN INDIA: ROLE OF NAVTEJ SINGH JOHAR V. UNION OF INDIAN IN ETCHING EQUALITY FOR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
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Abstract
The Supreme Court of India in, its much celebrated, Navtej Singh Johar judgment unanimously held that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was unconstitutional in criminalizing consensual sex between two adults of the same sex. Understandably, then, this judgment has been critically reviewed and cherished in popular socio-cultural and legal literature. However, forgetting the long-fought battle to this milestone would be equivalent to undermining the experiences of the people from the LGBT community. In light of this, the paper presents the following three questions: First, we will try to locate the historical position of LGBT community in the Indian societal structure. Second, we trace the legal developments in India leading to the Navtej Singh Johar judgment, and; finally, we analyze the status quo and how we stand in terms of our international commitments leading to 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (‘SDG’) agenda. Essentially, this paper looks at the plight of the LGBT community from a socio-legal lens.
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