High Court judgment de-criminalises homosexuality Law is what is legislated; law is also what the courts declare. In the constitutional scheme, the Union and the States have distinct spheres of legislative competence, while some subjects of legislative power of the Union and the States may also overlap. The validity of legislation may be tested on the question of power to legislate on a particular subject or whether it conflicts with any right guaranteed under the constitution. In recent history, no judgment of a Court has generated as much interest ( and therefore controversy as well) as the judgment of the Delhi High Court striking down a portion of the Section 377 IPC that criminalizes consensual sexual practices between adults of the same sex as violating the fundamental tenets of equality, privacy and right to life. The forensic course in the judgment The judgment traces the penal provision to owe its origin to Judeo-Christian moral and ethical standards (IPC was drafted by ...