The Allahabad High Court last week quashed an order cancelling the appointment of a male Home Guard, the petitioner, on account of a video of the petitioner got viral.
A single bench of Justice Sunita Agarwal passed this order while hearing a petition filed by Pramod Kumar Sharma. The order dated June 11, 2019 by the District Commandant, Home Guards, Bulandshahar, indicated that the cancellation of appointment of the petitioner is on account of a video of the petitioner which turned viral.
The Court stated that the counter-affidavit shows the perception of the officer who had passed the order of cancellation. The sexual orientation of the petitioner has been stated to be indulgence in untoward activity.
This is completely in violation of the observations of the Apex Court in Navtej Singh Johar v.Union of India reported in (2018) 10 SCC 1.
The Apex Court in the said case has held that the sexual orientation of the person is his individual choice and any act of treating it as an offence would be interference in the right of the privacy of the person concerned.
“It was held that any display of affection among members of the LGBT community towards their partners in the public, so long as it does not amount to indecency or has the potentiality to disturb public order cannot be bogged down by majority perception,”
-the Court observed.
The order of the cancellation of the appointment of the petitioner dated June 11, 2019 from the post of Home Guard passed by the District Commandant of Home Guards, Bulandshahar is hereby quashed.
“The respondent No.2 i.e. the Commandant General of Home Guards, Head Quarters, UP, Lucknow is directed to take the petitioner back in service with immediate effect. The petitioner shall be entitled to all admissible dues and the honorarium shall be paid regularly as and when the same falls due,”
-the order reads.