Footnotes from Section 377

After Ocean Vuong’s Seventh Circle of Earth

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION^[1] WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 76 OF 2016 NAVTEJ SINGH JOHAR & ORS. VERSUS UNION OF INDIA THR. SECRETARY  MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE       

A.In (Meharban) Nowshirwan Irani v. Emperor^[2], for instance, a police officer observed Nowshirwan, a young shopkeeper, engaged in homosexual acts with a young man, Ratansi, through a keyhole in Nowshirwan’s house. 

B.In D P Minwalla v. Emperor^[3], Minawalla and Taj(mahomed) were seen having anal intercourse in a lorry and were arrested, charged, and found guilty under Section 377.

^[1] My Petition, My Petition/What is the jurisdiction of pleasure?/Who is the secretary of scandal?/Which court gives the supreme rimjob?/Which law is anally banal? /Hear, Hear

^[2] I envy your gaze, officer/ holding every muscle in place/ you quiver to their dripping sweat/ moans running engines down your thighs/the key in your hand slips/combustion begins/I petition

^[3] your infidel names/ones which became immortal/even the four minarets in white marble/static under archaeology’s burden/cannot match the earthquake of your lorry/ that passion truck prowling the highway/ strobe-lighting up henna and cigarette advertisements/you cum silvers of the moon/I petition

C.In Ratan Mia v. State of Assam^[4], the Court convicted two men (one aged fifteen and a half, the other twenty) under Section 377 and treated them as equally guilty, as he was unable to cast one of them as the perpetrator and the other as the victim or abettor.

^[4] In which Symposium was your lovemaking honed?/now memory writes your juvenile testimony/the archive seals forever vows/my excavation, the paperwork of hypocrisy/I cannot forget/your ink spills beyond history, equally/I petition