The newly constituted five-member constitution bench will start hearing from July 10 on four major issues including issues of homosexual sex. The Supreme Court had declared sexual relations between homosexuals in 2013 as a crime. The Delhi High Court had said in a decision in 2009 that sexual relations between homosexuals will not be in the category of crime by mutual consent. But bypassing this decision, the Supreme Court declared gay sexual relations under section 377 of the IPC.
After the Supreme Court's decision, the review petitions were filed and when they were dismissed, the affected parties filed a Corrective Petition so that the original verdict was re-examined. While pending the corrective petitions, it was demanded that the hearing should be approved in the open court and when the Supreme Court agreed on this, many petitions were filed and demand was made that Section 377 (Unnatural crime) Be excluded from the category.
The newly constituted five-member constitution bench will be chaired by Chief Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice R. F. Nariman, Justice AM Khanvilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra will be its members. This information has been posted on the website of the Supreme Court. In addition to the challenge given to Section 377, the constitution bench will also hear the issue of disputed issues related to the ban on the entrance of women of 10 to 50 years of age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple.
The bench will also hear the appeal challenging the Constitutional validity of Article 497 of the Indian Penal Code. Under this section, only men are punished for adultery and women involved in crime are considered victims. The Constitution Bench will also hear on the petition in which it is to decide that after filing a charge sheet against any MP or MLA in a criminal case, he should be declared disqualified after conviction.
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