Context
A law to accord an ex post facto pardon to those who were convicted under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) would do poetic justice to the LGBTQ+ community and Professor Ramachandra Siras.
Background
- From 1862, when Section 377 of the IPC came into effect, until September 6, 2018, when the Supreme Court of India ruled that the application of Section 377 of the IPC to consensual homosexual behaviour between adults was “unconstitutional, irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary”, the LGBTQ+ community was treated as a criminal tribe in India.
- Siras is a perfect example of the persecution faced by the LGBTQ+ community in India.
- He was a Professor and head of the Department of Modern Indian Languages at Aligarh Muslim University.
- On a winter night in 2010, two men trespassed into Siras’ house and caught him having consensual sex with another man.
- Siras was suspended by AMU for “gross misconduct”. Hansal Mehta’s critically acclaimed biopic, Aligarh (2015), portrayed the social ostracism and mental trauma suffered by Siras.
- Even though he won his case against the university in the Allahabad High Court and got his job back, Siras died a mysterious death on April 7, 2010.
Law passed in UKThe U.K. passed the Alan Turing law in 2017, which grants amnesty and pardon to those convicted of consensual samesex relationships.
The law is named after Alan Turing, the computer scientist who was instrumental in cracking intercepted coded messages during World War II and was convicted of gross indecency in 1952.
The Alan Turing law provides not only a posthumous pardon but also an automatic formal pardon for living people.
Source: The Hindu
