Six more petitions were today filed in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of section 377IPC and which said the penal code cannot be allowed to criminalise sex between consenting heterosexual adults. These petitions may most likely be tagged along with pleas filed by hotelier Keshav Suri and earlier by five other celebrities which has been placed before a constitution bench.

The Supreme Court had on April 23 issued notice to the Centre on a plea filed by Suri, top businessman and Executive Director of Lalit Hotels, seeking to quash Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises homosexuality. Suri who himself is part of the LGBTQ community said that he constantly lives under the threat of a false prosecution, and is, therefore, unable to live a life of dignity whereby he can exercise his choice to have sexual relations with his partner whom he has been with for a decade now.

While the curative plea filed by Naz Foundation was already pending, Businesswoman Ayesha Kapur, Bharatnatyam dancer and recipient of 2014 Sangeet Natak Akademi award Navtej Singh Johar, wellknown journalist Sunil Mehra, noted chef, author, restaurateur and TV personality Ritu Dalmia, and hotelier, writer and historian Aman Nath in last year january filed a joint petition which has been placed before a constitution bench for hearing. “Despite our achievements and contributions to India in various fields, we are being denied the right to sexuality, the most basic and inherent of fundamental rights,” they had told the SC. Read more via LiveLaw