LANDMARK CASE

Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India

(2018) 10 SCC 1 · Supreme Court of India · Constitutional law

At a glance

Citation: (2018) 10 SCC 1
Court: Supreme Court of India
Area of law: Constitutional law
In one line: Section 377 was read down. Consensual sexual acts between adults in private are not a crime. Suresh Kumar Koushal was overruled.

1 Facts

Dancer Navtej Singh Johar and others challenged Section 377 IPC, which criminalised consensual same sex relations between adults.

2 Issue

Does Section 377 violate Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 to the extent it criminalises consensual adult relations?

3 What the court decided

Section 377 was read down. Consensual sexual acts between adults in private are not a crime. Suresh Kumar Koushal was overruled.

4 Why it matters

It affirmed dignity, autonomy and equality for LGBTQ persons and applied constitutional morality over popular morality.

5 Think about it

What is the difference between constitutional morality and social morality, as the Court explains it?

6 Analyse it yourself

Read the full judgment from an official source or a law database, then brief it in seven steps: facts, issues, arguments, decision, ratio, obiter and significance. Always check the citation before you rely on it.

7 More cases on Constitutional law

A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras AIR 1950 SC 27
ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976) 2 SCC 521
Air India v. Nergesh Meerza (1981) 4 SCC 335
Ajay Hasia v. Khalid Mujib Sehravardi (1981) 1 SCC 722
Anuj Garg v. Hotel Association of India (2008) 3 SCC 1
Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020) 3 SCC 637

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