In a landmark verdict delivered unanimously by a nine-judge Constitution Bench, the Supreme Court Thursday ruled that individual privacy is a fundamental right.
“As an academic and a poet who is also a lesbian, I find the Supreme Court ruling very heartening,” said Dr Shalmalee Palekar, whose does research on sexuality at the English and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia. Palekar, an academic and daughter of actors Amol and Chitra Palekar, told The Indian Express in an email interview that the ruling on right to privacy had wide-ranging implications. “It has definitely opened doors again for the LGBTIQ community,” she said.
“Justice Chandrachud’s excellent and unequivocal observations that sexual orientation *is* within the scope of the fundamental right to privacy should lay the jurisprudential foundation for a reading down of 377 — and so is incredibly heartening for us!” she said. In an earlier interview with this reporter, Palekar had acknowledged the support of her parents when she was anxious about “coming out” as a 20-year-old. “Then I knew there was nothing wrong with me because I had come to realise over my teen years that I was a lesbian,” she had said.
Chitra Palekar was among the 19 parents who had filed petitions in the SC supporting the Delhi HC decision to strike down Section 377 of the IPC. She had countered claims that overturning Section 377 would attack family values on which our society was based. She also did not shy away from referring to her daughter’s partner while talking about her life in Perth.
