Yale-NUS talk by Indian lawyer, who won battle to quash India’s gay sex law, not in contempt of court: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — A lecture by an Indian lawyer at Yale-NUS College about India’s journey in repealing its gay sex law is unlikely to prejudice Singapore’s courts, despite several ongoing cases questioning the constitutionality of the city state’s version of the law, Law Minister K Shanmugam said on Monday (Nov 11).

Mr Shanmugam was addressing objections by some people to a talk by Dr Menaka Guruswamy, an influential lawyer of Indian nationality, slated to be held at the Singapore university on the same day.

Dr Guruswamy was one of the lawyers who had succeeded in quashing the colonial law that forbids sexual activity against “the order of nature” in India last year, thus decriminalising homosexuality.

“Several people have written to me, objecting to a talk to be given by Dr Menaka Guruswamy, today. The talk is organised by Yale-NUS College. She is slated to speak on what happened in the Indian courts, on Section 377. There is also a petition asking the Government to stop her talk,” said Mr Shanmugam, who is also Home Affairs Minister, on Facebook.

The petition against the event was posted on CitizenGo, a website that describes itself as a community that seeks to “defend and promote life, family and liberty”. It was started by one Esther Lee and addressed to Mr Shanmugam, and has attracted more than 10,000 signatories.

“The main objection appears to be that legal challenges to (Singapore’s) Section 377A are about to be heard in Court, and this talk could be sub judice,” Mr Shanmugam wrote.

Sub judice refers to public discussion of a case under judicial consideration which may affect or prejudice the outcome of proceedings.

“I don’t see a significant risk of sub judice,” Mr Shanmugam said. “Dr Guruswamy is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. One may agree or disagree with her views, but I am sure she knows about rules relating to sub judice; and I don’t see an objection to her speaking about the law, and what happened in the Indian Supreme Court, where their Section 377 was successfully challenged.”

The two-hour event, titled “Litigating Freedom: The Battle to Overturn Indian Penal Code Section 377”, is scheduled to begin at 6.30pm on Monday at the Yale-NUS.

Several anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Facebook groups, including the “We are against Pinkdot in Singapore” group and the “Singaporeans Defending Marriage & Family” group, had voiced their opposition against the event.

Some described it as interference by foreigners in Singapore’s affairs.