The recent verdict dispensed by the
Supreme Court of India on Section 377 of IPC has generated huge
clamor in public domain. The major point of conflict is the wordings
of the verdict that reflect a mediocre, medieval, and regressive
mindset of judges who risked their sensibility in addressing a larger
democratic and human rights issue, in rather the most imbecile way
possible. Articulating this judgment, first, they have contradicted
the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India, and
second, misread the universal democratic principles.
Decriminalization of homosexuality has
nothing to do with culture, religion, law and state; it's a
consensual act between two free adults who have every right to do
whatever they want to in a liberal society. Keeping an archaic,
meaningless, orthodox piece of penal code, which has no relevance in
the current social dynamics is another reference of state crime, and,
simply, it reflects how vulnerable is India as the largest democracy
of the world – the democracy that doesn't uphold the basic
principles of human rights. This judgment is perhaps the most
regressive one in the recent history and, beyond question, it
degrades the democratic index of India in a modern world. In all
modern democracies of the world, civil liberty takes the front seat
of progression, and in India, it's almost invisible in action.
While political classes are now
squarely blaming the verdict and reacting to this judgment in the
most opportunistic way, they have hardly done anything significant in
all these years. And the most incredible point in the context of this
judgment is that even after 67 years of independence, India is still
servile to the laws enacted by the Britishers some 150 years ago. As
a parliamentary democracy, India has not only failed to imbibe the
principles of modern democracy, but also it has aborted the mechanism
of delivering fair justice to its citizens. Whether political,
judicial, or bureaucratic, each organ of state has proved
inefficient, indolent, and digressive to the modern democratic
principles. Now is the time to overhaul the system in letter and
spirit.
