Gay sex now legal in India; Supreme Court strikes down section 377

Section 377 was modelled after the 16th century Buggery Act of Britain

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised consensual “unnatural sex”.

A landmark judgment

‘Irrational, indefensible, manifestly arbitrary’

The LGBTQ community possesses the same constitutional rights as other citizens, said the 493-page judgment of the Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra

‘A biological phenomenon… natural’

Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation violated Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution

In the world

Homosexual relations are legal in 25 countries besides India. But 72 nations and territories continue to criminalise it. In 45 such places, same-sex relations between women are also outlawed

ALSO READ: Section 377: Full text of SC's judgement on decriminalising homosexuality

The petitioners

A batch of writ petitions was filed by dancer Navtej Johar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri, business executive Ayesha Kapur, and 20 students of the IITs

What this judgment means

Other aspects of the law, which criminalises non-consensual sexual acts, bestiality, and “unnatural” sex with animals, will remain in force.

Same-sex civil union is still not allowed, though the law commission has recently advocated it

The road to equal rights

Section 377 was modelled after the 16th century Buggery Act of Britain

• July 2, 2009: The Delhi High Court (HC) legalised consensual same-gender sex for adults
• 2013: A two-judge SC Bench of G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya overturned the HC judgment, claiming fewer than 200 people had been prosecuted under the law
• 2015: Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor disallowed by fellow parliamentarians from introducing a private member’s Bill to decriminalise homosexuality
• 2017: A nine-member SC Bench, ruling on the right to privacy, criticised the 2013 judgment

Over 340 'irrational' drugs to go off shelves soon; many more under scanner

To hit Rs 20-bn market; 944 more fixed-dosage combination drugs under scanner

The Centre is one step closer to banning 343 “irrational” fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs that were potentially harmful to consumers. The market size of the banned drugs is estimated to be around Rs 20-22 billion and will impact the country’s top drugmakers.

Patient advocacy groups say more FDCs, worth Rs 200-250 billion, are under scanner. An FDC drug is one that contains two or more active ingredients in a fixed-dosage ratio.

In March 2016, the ministry of health and family welfare had implemented a ban on 349 FDCs based on recommendations of the Chandrakant Kokate committee that found these drug combinations to be irrational and posing health risks. In December, the Supreme Court referred the matter to the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) for a fresh review after drugmakers challenged the ban.

The DTAB, in a meeting held in New Delhi on Wednesday, re-inforced the ban on 343 of the 349 drugs. It, however, felt restricted use could be allowed for six FDCs. The DTAB would forward its report to the health ministry in the next 7-10 days, said a top government official.

ALSO READ: Gujarat is at the number one spot for making quality drugs in India

These FDCs roughly contribute to 1.8 per cent of the overall domestic drug market. The FDC segment is clocking a slower growth rate (4.7 per cent in June) compared to the rest of the domestic drug market (8.6 per cent). They cover around 6,000 brands mainly from firms like Abbott Healthcare, Mankind Pharma, Wockhardt, Alkem, Lupin, Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Eris Lifesciences and Ipca, among others

Abbott, perhaps, would take the largest hit. It has an exposure of around Rs 5.45 billion in these FDCs. An Abbott spokesperson said the company was awaiting communication from DTAB on the matter. Abbott is followed by Macleods Pharma (Rs 2.95 billion) and Mankind Pharma (Rs 1.34 billion), according to market research firm AIOCD AWACS.

Anticipating the ban, the companies were bracing up. Pfizer, for instance, has changed the formulation for its popular cough syrup Corex and launched it as Corex T. (more)

Virtual boost: Baahubali-2 may change the way sports is watched at homes

Radeon Technologies is now trying to extend VR technology to live-streaming of sports like cricket

Soon, the experience of watching sports sitting in your living room would get a virtual boost.

Radeon Technologies Group, a part of chip maker AMD, is out to change the way people watch sports at home.

Using a virtual reality (VR) headset, the company wants to give a 360-degree view of a sporting arena to a viewer. The living room would suddenly be in the middle of a stadium. A viewer with a VR headset would get a glimpse of every inch of the stadium by moving his head towards the direction he wants to see.

Supreme Court bans sale of BS-III vehicles from April 1

“We are talking to people in the sporting world for live streaming of matches on our VR platform,” Raja Koduri, senior vice-president of Radeon Technologies Group, who heads the graphics processor development initiative of AMD, told Business Standard. “We hope to make some announcements in this regard in the second half of this year.”

Radeon perfected the technology for live streaming during its collaboration in the making of Baahubali 2, said Koduri.

“The tools that were used in the making of Baahubali 2 were 10 times better than what were used to make the first Baahubali. Part 2 contains two trillion pixels of graphics. There was not a single frame without VR content.” Read more

Rahul Gandhi shouldn't have resorted to denunciation of RSS: SC

Rahul Gandhi shouldn't have resorted to denunciation of RSS: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that Rahul Gandhi, who blamed RSS for assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, should not have resorted to "collective denunciation" of an organisation and will have to face trial in the defamation case against him if he does not express regret.

"We have held it may be historically correct but the fact or the statement has to meet the test of public good. You can't make collective denunciation," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman said.

The bench said that "freedom is not crippled or curbed. What is curbed is freedom of speech. What the writers, politicians, critics or antagonists say, you must have great magnitude to swallow."

The bench questioned the speech made by Rahul and wondered "why he made a speech quoting wrong historical fact".

The apex court said that they have applied their mind and Rahul Gandhi will have to face the trial in the case.

"What we have to see is the petitioner's allegations come under Section 499 (defamation) of IPC or not. Judgement is already there. You have to face trial, if you don't express regret," the bench said.

It also said "the purpose of law is not to convert people into litigants. Purpose of law is that people obey law. Peace and harmony should prevail rather than chaos."(more)