This presentation traces out the story of the constitutional challenge to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.  The legal time line begins with an initially unsuccessful petition filed in 1994 by the AIDS Bedbhav Virodhi Andolan. This was followed by a petition by the Naz Foundation in 2001 which has had two significant end points. The decision of the Delhi High Court in 2009 decriminalizing LGBT people’s lives and the recent decision of the Supreme Court recriminalizing LGBT person’s lives in 2013. This presentation will chart out the horizons of law which the Delhi High Court opened out to and the constitutional doors shut by the Supreme Court judgement. The presentation concludes by mapping the challenge of advancing the rights of LGBT persons as a socio-political and a legal struggle.

About the Speaker:   Arvind Narrain is a founder member of the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, India, a collective of young lawyers who work on a critical practise of law. He works on issues pertaining to human rights and also with specific reference to the human rights of those who are discriminated against on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. He is also the author of Queer: Despised sexualities and Social Change and co-editor of Because I have a voice: Queer politics in India and Law Like Love: Queer perspectives on law.  He is also part of the team of lawyers who represented Voices Against 377 in the High Court and Supreme Court in the Naz Foundation case.  He has done a bachelor’s in law from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) followed by a master’s degree from the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarship. He may be contacted at:  arvind@altlawforum.org

Time: 5pm

Date: Friday, March 28, 2014

Venue: CLPR Lecture Hall