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Why is the Supreme Court hearing the LGBT rights petition again?

In the latest developments in the Section 377 issue, the Supreme Court is set to hear a curative petition filed by gay rights activists and Naz Foundation on February 2. The curative petition is against the apex court’s 11 December 2013 judgement upholding the validity of Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code and the January 2014 order by which it had dismissed many review petitions.

The Supreme Court which has refused to decriminalize homosexuality in the past, will once again re-examine its 2013 judgment which upholds the constitutional validity of Section 377.

The hearing on February 2 is a rare remedy afforded to LGBT petitioners, who have waged an almost two-year battle for an open-court hearing.

The petitioners have contended that the review judgment, if not corrected, may result in “immense public injury” to the rights of the minority community.
The petitioners have asked the Court to clarify what was the “compelling State interest” to deny the LGBT community privacy and dignity by criminalising consensual sexual acts in private.

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