Supreme Court must reconsider judgement on consensual gay sex: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday came out in support of the LGBT community, remarking that the Supreme Court’s judgement against gay sex should be ‘reconsidered’.
Jaitley said future generations would have to see that the verdict criminalizing consensual gay sex "are reconsidered", while speaking at a LitFest in the national capital.
"I am for decriminalising gay sex," said the Union Minister to a news channel, referring to the controversial section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC, which makes gay sex a criminal offence entailing punishment up to life term.
Jaitley also spoke of the National Judicial Appointments Commission act, continuing his criticism of the quashing the NJAC Act, he said doctrine of basic structure, including elected government and parliament's sovereignty, cannot be "dismantled" to save only independence of judiciary and favoured reconsideration of the verdict.
"Of course, I have been vocal in my comments about recent judgement on the NJAC. I think at some stage in future, we need to reconsider it. When the law says that the President shall appoint (judges) in consultation with the Chief Justice, to say that this law actually means that the Chief Justice will appoint virtually without consulting anyone, is the opposite of what the Constitution says.
"And to base it on a logic that an institution can be saved only by exclusivity of exercise of power by judiciary, elected representatives, can't be trusted. I think to say, the least, is not a fair argument," the Finance Minister said.
He said in a democracy, where independence of judiciary, is a part of basic structure but so is the elected government and an elected parliament, "you can't dismantle all other basic structures just to protect one".
He said that reservations in job and education for tribal people and others should continue till the time the "deprived section" of the society do not come on par with others.
