The discussion in the current legal issues forum tomorrow, the 6th of August will be based on the recent Naz foundation judgement. Since the criminal and social issues surrounding this judgement have been discussed extensively, we chose to focus our presentation largely on the constitutional aspects of this judgement. The issues that will be dealt with by us include:
1. What is the constitutional basis for the premise that sexual orientation is analogous to sex? We will address the debate surroundingthis question using the principles of constitutional interpretation.
2. What are the implications of the horizontal application of Article15(2)? Is such a reading of the article constitutionally sound?
3. What is the Doctrine of Strict Scrutiny? What are the Constitutional implications of its applicability?
4. Does the position of Naz foundation on Article 21 allow for the protection of the rights to Privacy and Dignity?
5. How have other jurisdictions interpreted provisions similar to s. 377?
6. What are the implications of the Naz foundation judgement on the Age of Consent?
These issues are not exhaustive and we hope that more avenues of discussion develop from the ones mentioned. In order to facilitate discussion, we recommend reading the Naz Foundation case and also urge you to bring a copy of the Constitution along!
you might want to see the latest SC judgment on strict scrutiny in Subhash Chandra: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg5pxzvr_55c3dbdhgg
ReplyDeletealso, on horizontal application of rights, the debate between direct and indirect horizontality may also be interesting (since indirect horizontality is more manageable judicially and is a good answer to the floodgates argument): http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1673
Thanks Tarunabh. In fact most of the time at the Forum was taken up discussing the horizontality argument, and we ended up (at least those of us who felt horizontality was a good thing in principle) close to the indirect horizontality position.
ReplyDeleteA summary of the discussions will be up on the blog by Saturday.