Supreme Court begins hearing buggery law challenge

Jerome Reynolds, Staff Reporter



The Supreme Court is to begin hearing an application by gay rights activist Javed Jaghai who is seeking to challenge the buggery law.



Jaghai is seeking leave to the Constitutional Court.



He wants the court to determine if the anti-sodomy law breaches rights guaranteed under the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms which he contends guarantees the right to privacy.



The gay rights activist is seeking a declaration that the private sexual activities between consenting males must be excluded from the Offences Against the Person Act.



He is also seeking an order that the act will continue to govern non-consensual acts and those which take place with males under the age of 16.



If he is successful, it would mean that the right to privacy will include the right of two homosexual men to engage in intercourse in privacy without facing the risk of being charged with a criminal offence.



The attorney general has been named as a defendant in the matter.



Jaghai is contending that to date the Government has not given an undertaking that it will repeal the sections of the Offences Against the Person Act under which homosexuals can be charged.



He argues that the Government continues to violate his right to privacy and equality before the law as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights.



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