‘Choosing a partner is a person’s fundamental right’

‘Choosing a partner is a person’s fundamental right’

News

1. SC observes that choice of a partner is a person’s fundamental right, and it can be a same-sex partner.

Important facts:

2. A Constitution bench hearing petitions challenging the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era provision that criminalises private consensual sex between adults.
3. Bench is led by chief justice Dipak Misra. Other Judges of the bench are Justice Chandrachud, Justice R.F. Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra

4. SC revisiting its December 2013 verdict in Suresh Kaushal case which had upheld section 377.
5. It had considered LGBT community as a negligible part of the population and virtually deny them the right of choice and sexual orientation.
6. However, in 2010, Delhi HC had protected the LGBT community from section 377
7. During hearing senior advocate Arvind Datar argue that the right to sexual orientation was meaningless without the right to choose a partner.
8. SC drew its observations from the March 2018 judgment in the Hadiya case, which held that neither the State nor one’s parents could influence an adult’s choice of partner. That would be a violation of the fundamental right to privacy.
9. SC will also decide whether Section 377 stood in conformity with Articles 21 (right to life), 19 (right to liberty) and 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
10. 172^nd Law Commission report had recommended deletion of section 377.