10-Jun-2021
In a landmark approach to delivering justice, Justice Ventakesh, a Madras High Court judge, recently underwent sessions with a counseling psychologist and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, before passing orders in a case where a lesbian couple sought protection from violence and intimidation by their own families. Justice Venkatesh’s unique approach to jurisprudence The court…
06-Sep-2019
We were once deemed outlandish and the outcast… dubbed irregular and shunned into the shadows. But not anymore. Exactly a year ago, the Indian Supreme Court stood by India’s thriving rainbow community restoring our dignity as equal citizens. But while the judgment was historic indeed, we are still a long way from the inclusive utopia…
16-Feb-2019
The Transgender Bill 2018, introduced by the Modi government, ostensibly to ‘protect’ the Transgender community has evoked strong reactions from the community as well as progressive minded people throughout India. It is largely seen as a conservative, even devious piece of legislation that will irreversibly harm the Transgender community. In this must watch video, CJP…
31-Dec-2018
2018 was an important year in the courts for several key human rights issues. Here is the annual round up of 12 such judgments that helped deliver justice and set right several historical wrongs. SC respects Hadiya’s choice On March 8, 2018, the Supreme Court set aside a Kerala High Court judgment that had annulled…
06-Sep-2018
In a historic judgement, the Supreme Court of India has granted adult Indian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA) people the dignity they have always deserved… the right to love who they love and to not be punished for expressing that love sexually and privately. In doing so, the SC has granted…
14-Aug-2018
Equal Rights activist Harish Iyer has been appointed to the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) Core Group on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex (LGBTI) issues. This is the first group set up exclusively to look into the concerns and challenges of India’s vibrant rainbow community and marks a step towards greater understanding and acceptance of…
09-Jul-2018
The Indian Supreme Court is all set to start hearing a series of petitions that call for the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In these petitions the plea is to decriminalise consensual sex between adults in private. Section 377 that criminalises ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’, also affects heterosexual…
01-May-2018
Section 377, that criminalises ‘unnatural sex‘ has been the bane of every Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA) person’s existence in India. But with feisty Millennials like Keshav Suri moving the Indian Supreme Court to decriminalise Section 377, it appears that the day is not far when the sun would shine bright…