The Allahabad High Court has reinstated a man to his government job in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr city, after his appointment was cancelle...
The Allahabad High Court has reinstated a man to his government job in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr city, after his appointment was cancelled on the basis of a video that revealed his sexual orientation, Live Law reported on Tuesday. The court said that treating sexual orientation as an offence interfered with the person’s right to privacy.
On June 11, 2019, the district commandant of Home Guards of Bulandshahr had passed an order cancelling the appointment of Pramod Kumar Sharma, according to Bar and Bench. The order came after unidentified people filmed Sharma with his partner and uploaded it on social media. In the dismissal order, the commandant referred to Sharma’s sexual orientation as “indulgence in untoward activity”, reported the Hindustan Times.
Sharma then filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court, challenging the order. In a previous hearing of the case, the court had asked the officer who passed the order cancelling the appointment, to file a counter affidavit to the petition, Live Law reported.
On February 2, a single-judge bench of Justice Sunita Agarwal noted that the mention of Sharma’s sexual orientation as “indulgence in untoward activity” was in violation of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 verdict that decriminalised homosexuality and upheld the rights of the LGBT community.
“The apex court in the said case has held that the sexual...
