Queer and Anti-Queer Politics in India: Role of Judiciary and the Episodes of Legal Battles

Avijit Sutradhar

Affiliations:

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Islampur College, Islampur, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, INDIA

The word ‘queer’ was popularized in the early 1990s and it is a product of specific cultural and theoretical pressures which has structured the debates on the questions of lesbian and gay identities. In place of ‘queer’, the paper explicitly uses the term ‘sexual minorities’ to denote the people belonging the LGBTQIA+ communities who are dependent on the state authority to enjoy some rights of their own. Politics on queer questions develops with social resistance when a tabooed bodily desire demands a political solution. Indian judiciary is active on queer justice and also concerned about the opinion of the law makers or the lawmaking body of the country. Notably, queer politics as well as anti-queer politics both have appeared in court. Justifying the notable court cases on the issues of the sexual minorities, the paper portrays the role of Indian judiciary which expressed a critical concern on the rights of the LGBTQIA+ who are too the parts of the Indian democratic political system. Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality in 2009; the Supreme Court of India recriminalized it in 2013; and in 2018, Supreme Court said the criminalization indicates the violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizen. On the contrary, in 2023, Supreme Court ruled against the legalization of same-sex marriage. Hence, the paper examines the role of the judiciary and highlights several episodes of legal battles since 1994 that the country has witnessed on the issue of the rights of LGBTQIA+.

Keywords:
Sexual Minorities, Supreme Court, LGBTQ Rights, Bollywood, Queer Politics

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