Echoing Supreme Court Justice DY Chandrachud’s thoughts, the opposition is criticising the Narendra Modi-led government for not taking a stand on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalised homosexuality.
Addressing an event earlier, Justice Chandrachud had expressed disappointment over the Centre’s decision to leave it to the Supreme Court to take a call on such a sensitive issue.
Speaking to ANI, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj K Jha said, “By merely ignoring such an important issue and handing to the judiciary is not the solution. By taking such moves, the government is setting a wrong tradition for other governments.”
Senior Loktantrik Janata Dal party leader Sharad Yadav was of the view that the government did not take up this issue properly in the Parliament, fearing that the Opposition will expose their acts pertaining to the issue. “The court has given its judgment on the article 377 in a very beautiful manner. I strongly believe that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) didn’t take discuss this issue in-depth in the Parliament because of the fear of getting exposed,” he added.
However, Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi said that handing crucial matters to the court is a common thing in a democracy. “Sometimes, the government passes the crucial matter to courts and sometimes judiciary too directs the government to take important decisions. The is quite common in our country,’ he said.
On September 6, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Rohinton Fali Nariman, A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra, announced the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
With regards to this, Justice Chandrachud, while speaking at an event, had questioned why the union government left sensitive issues such as the validity of Section 377 for the Supreme Court to dwell upon.
