For petitioners from IIT in Section 377 case, Tuesday’s ruling a missed chance to ensure equal rights

For several alumni and students of IIT-Delhi, who were among those who had challenged Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code — and got a verdict in their favour from the Supreme Court in 2018 — Tuesday’s ruling by the apex court in the same-sex marriage case came as a blow.

Twenty former and current students from IITs across the country, part of an informal pan-IIT LGBTQ group called Pravritti, had filed writ petitions challenging Section 377. Apart from Pravritti, which was formed in 2012, each IIT has its own LGBTQ group on campus.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Varun, who pursued BTech at IIT-Delhi and was the youngest amongst the petitioners, said, ‘The culmination of years of petitions building up to this has been a once-in-a-lifetime chance missed by the Supreme Court — to (give us) equal rights as queer individuals.’

For Balachandran Ramaih, who passed out of IIT-Delhi in 1982, the verdict was ‘not positive news for the community’. ‘The Pravritti members are disappointed with the verdict as it doesn’t really take things forward apart from the status quo… Basically, no rights either for marriage or civil union were granted. Initially, the mood was favourable when the Chief Justice was reading his judgment, but his was the minority judgment…,’ said Ramaih, who is currently based in Mumbai and is an investment professional and academic.

Debottam Saha (32), also among the main petitioners, said his optimism has dipped after the verdict. Looking back at his journey and struggles to gain equal rights in society, Saha, who is currently finishing his PhD at IIT-Delhi, said, ‘The idea of the petition came up in 2018 when we, on behalf of the Indian Institute of Technology, wanted to show that IITians are not just engineers but can also be queer supportive. When the Supreme Court’s verdict on Right to Privacy came out, that was the time when Section 377 was also being discussed.’

For Akhilesh Godi, the verdict was a ‘gut-wrenching loss’. ‘There were a lot of moral platitudes and empathy… a lot of words were used to recognise the struggles faced by queer persons and queer relationships in general… But, I would like to think that it has not materialised into anything… Everything that was said in a positive light, about the directions to the central and state governments, has happened in multiple cases in the past…,’ said Godi, an engineer based out of Bengaluru.

The 30-year-old graduated from IIT-Madras in 2015.